BNaB 2: A new Journey
by Basbon
Summary: A continuation of „Between Nuts and Bolts". I would suggest you read it first before reading this, otherwhise it won't really make sence to you. (Also whole lots of shipping going on, so be aware of that) (Seriously, that's why it's rated T) (That and a bit of shooting here and there)
1. A familiar face

Bolts P.O.V.

It was pretty late, almost 3 a.m., and outside was dark and cold. I was laying down on the lawn with Mittens on my chest, and Rhino on a pillow next to me. The little guy was already asleep, and I felt tired too.

Since Mittens and I became mates, we hadn't had any secrets, and I got to know a completely different side of her! Who could have known what a lovely cat she actually was deep inside? To everyone else she was still kinda harsh and sarcastic, but she treated me differently!

Rhino was really happy for us two, he told me that he listened to my conversation with Five back on Maximus and knew what was going on even before that. Since we still had the speech converter, I told Penny about me and Mittens.

Her reaction was priceless. The whole day she was giggling and excited, so much actually that it surpassed the level of Rhinos hyperactivity marathons, and she talked to us the whole day about how it happened and how we felt about it.

Suddenly the cat started moving and mumbled: „Boltie, I'm cold..." I knew what she meant by that, after all, we've been mates for almost a year and a half now! „Sure thing Mitts!" I raised my arm and layed it over Mittens, who instandly stopped shaking.

„Thanks..." I guess she was really tired too. „Should we go insi-" I was apruptly cut off by a flashing light in the sky. „What was that?", I asked, but I assumed that my brain just made it up. But there it was again!

„Mitts?" - „Hm?" - „Could you please look to the sky and see if there is something flashing?" She put a lot of effort into opening her eyes and not closing them again. „I don't see anyth-" Again!

Now she was fully awake. „Was that..." Without any warning the light came back, but this time it stayed on, and was moving towards us!

„Uh oh..." We jumped on our paws and woke Rhino up, just to see an object coming down. At first I couldn't quite make up what it was, but then I noticed its shape: Almost like a jet, without wings and four tubes attached to its side with blue orbs hammering out of them.

I was immidiately thrown back to the day we met the commander for the first time. What was his name again? It began with E... Exo... ExoSkull! Right! But that didn't look like his ship, actually, now that it came even closer, it didn't look like anything I ever saw, but kinda simmilar to the cruiser we stole!

It landed right next to us, and the engines were shut off. The visor slided to the right and out jumped a very familiar figure. It was too dark to make any colors out, but when he started talking, we instandly know who we were facing.

„Hey guys, how have you been?" - „We are doing pretty well Mauser! Nice to see you again." The light brown boxer moved close enough for us to see him now. „What takes you to our lovely planet?", Mittens asked with a very sarcastic, and very tired tone in her voice.

„I need you to come with me! You are my- I mean the Skulls last hope!" - „What do you mean by that?" - „I'll explain it on the way!" I wasn't really sure if I could take another adventure, but Rhino was excited about it.

„Oh please Bolt! Can we come with him? Can we? PLEEEEEASE?" - „Yeah, can you? Pleeeease? I really nee- I mean, the Skulls really need you!" I sighed. „If this is what you want... But what are we going to do about Penny? She will worry about us and not sleep while we're gone!"

Mauser looked down and thought about it. „We can write her a letter..." - „Really? This is thing you mastermind came up with? I mean, I would have imagined something like clones or holograms or something like that!"

The boxer chuckled. „It's not like we DON'T have clones of you..." - „WHAT?" - „Yeah, the scanner that Exo used to get your language right also scanned your DNA! Didn't he tell you that?"

I vaguely remembered him talking about it. „So you just keep clones of us? Why? And why are you not taking THEM with you?" - „Uhm... First off, I'm not just keeping them so that I can tell them that you love each other and see how they blush and confess it... Over and over again..."

Even after being mates, hearing this just made us both nervously blush and laugh. „Yeah, ok, you convinced us that you don't do that. Definately. But why aren't you taking them instead?"

„Because, well, clones don't have that long of a livespan yet, due to problems with the mashine, but we'll figure that out too someday. Also, I- I mean we need the originals for that!" We all looked at each other and after a bit more begging finally accepted. „Ok, no clones. We will pull out the letter idea. I don't want Penny in any other paws than my ones, even if that's technically me!"

„And you propably don't want Penny seeing a clone falling in on itself melting away. It's not very scary, but if she thinks thats you..." We all nodded and recorded a message for Penny, which we then placed inside on a shelf before going out to Mausers ship. „I can't believe that we're actually doing this..." - „Ah, you won't regret it!"

„Am I supposed to believe that?" - „You could try..." And thus we took off from the earth and hyperjumped to a new adventure, a new journey.

 **Did I say that BNAB was my last story? Weeeeeeell... I'm back? I've been asked to write more, and I think a sequel wouldn't hurt the original! So yeah, we are going to meet some old friends again, and a whole bunch of new ones! Be prepared for a new journey between nuts and bolts in space!**


	2. New faces

Bolts P.O.V.

When we exited hyperjump I had to admit, the idea of a spaceship JUST for dogs, was pretty amazing! Rhino was next to Mauser, and Mittens and I shared the back row again. It was surprisingly comfortable, not like in ExoSkulls ship.

But something was weird. Why did Mauser talk about helping him so much? He looked like he could handle every situation on his own perfectly! Well, time to ask I guess...

„So, what are we going to do now?" - „I won't tell you yet." - „But you said you will discuss it on the way!" - „Indeed! And I'm going to do that! But we're not on our way yet!" Now I was confused. „But where are we going then?" - „Just collecting a few friends of mine..." Oh great... More of his kind...

We came down on another planet, the atmospheric entry was pretty rough, which Mauser explained by the planets high air pressure, but I'm sure he just wouldn't admit that he isn't the best pilot. I know that I couldn't do it better, but he had at least some sort of experience.

Conincidently it was also night where we came down, and we had a hard time seeing anything. The boxer opened the visor and waited. Not long though, because another dog jumped in: A white golden retriever.

And a strong one at that! This guy looked extremely scary, and only became scarier when I heared his voice: „Sup Capn! How 'sit going?" That was a deep voice he had. Deep and threatning. It could only be one...

„Zett my man! I'm doing just fine!" Zett... „Guys, this is Zeta! Bolt, I think I told you about him already!" But of course! Zeta! Morris' dog! The one that Mauser was friends with and still secretly was even after the betrayal of his person!

„Oh, you brought yer friends with ya... Well then." Ok, let me just clarify that: Zeta didn't only have a deep voice, but also a very weird accent. Not in the way of Morris' accent, this went into western, but with a touch new yorkish slang. I have never heared that combination before.

We all said hi to him, but as he tried jumping on the front seat... „Nope Mr, it's gonna be the back row for you this time!" Oh no... „Why that? Oh... OH LEMME GUESS! _She_ is coming too?" What happened next was weird.

Instead of Mausers ever so charming, relaxed and layed back attitute, he awkwardly looked down and chuckled nervously. „Y- yeah... So could you please hop inside now?" I swear I could see a bit of redness on his cheeks... That was A) Very amusing to me, and B) Very strange.

„If you say so..." The massive furball sat down on the other end of the bench and looked over to us. „So, you must be Bolt, right?" Hearing my name out of this guys snout surprised me. „Yep, that's me..."

„Capn here told me about ya, but I imagined you being a bit... smaller!" Wow, he thought I was big? I was really considered 'big' by this giant threatning muscle packed-

„Well, his heart is even bigger!", Mittens mentioned, making me blush and giggle. Zeta on the other hand was confused. „What do ya mean by that?" - „He is the most lovable dog I've ever met!"

„Oh stop it you... he he... I never thought that I could love a cat as much as you didn't think loving a dog is possible..." Instead of replying, she just leaned over and kissed me. I blushed even more and studdered: „But I guess we are all wrong sometimes..."

Zeta shook his head, chuckled and talked to his friend while Mittens and I were just snuggling and getting a boost in sleep before... whatever Mauser had in plan for us.

Not long afterwards we landed on a different planet, this time in the late evening as it seemed. As he was about to open the visor, the light brown boxer turned to Rhino. „Hey, uhm... could you join the back row with your guys?"

Of course the little hamster knew what was going on. Even though he never admitted it, but he did watch some romantic movies from time to time. „Sure thing! And good luck..." - „Thanks bud!"

When the windshield folded to the right, we could see two other dogs standing near the ship. One was clearly female, the other one male, both border collies. I started wondering why there were the same breeds everywhere on the universe, but maybe it was just a coincidence.

„Hey Al, h- hey Lucy..." Mittens poked me slightly and I looked over to her. She smiled at me and made a gesture that I could only translate to 'Look who's in love'. I smiled back and was happy that I already confessed, but the guy who wanted to help me now needed help too. That's propably the dog Mauser talked about when I thought he wanted to get Mittens!

Before taking off, Mauser turned around and said: „Well guys, now we're complete! This is Allan and this is Lucy!" As his name was called, the male dog hid behind the ship, and only came out when the female dog pushed him inside.

„Sorry", she explained while doing so, „Allan is pretty shy, he's not really the community type and doesn't talk too much either..." Well, seemed like we had everyone on board. Whatever the mission was going to be, we would surely not take it on alone.

When they were both inside, we got to see the two new dogs better. They were indeed border collies, both dark brown with a bit of lighter brown in their faces. It was clear that they were sibblings.

Lucy went to the front seat next to Mauser, as we could have guessed, and Allan didn't know where to go, since Zeta sat all the way on the left, we were all the way on the right, and he was definately not wanting to sit next to dogs he didn't know.

„Uhm... Z- zeta? Could you please sit in the middle?" The white golden retriever looked at us, sighed and moved closer to us so that the obviously very shy and afraid border collie could be on the very left side.

But Rhino clearly didn't understand something in that action, because he went straight over to him and tried getting into a conversation: „Hey there! My name is Rhino! You must be Allan, right?" The poor guy blushed and looked to the side. By that time the hamster should have gotten the point, but instead, he asked: „Do you know where we're going?"

Mittens poked me again and whispered: „Should we help him?" I nodded and turned to Mauser. „So, good question, what are we going to do?" - „Ok, we'll get to the crypton and there I can show you." - „Better than never..."

Pleased with this answer, Rhino came back to us and layed down. I figured I should do the same. A few minutes later I was asleep and dreamt of the time I spent with Mittens when we were on our way home from where I met her the first time.

It was quite a nice dream, but it ended when I heared the boxers voice from the front seat: „Ok, we're going to hyperjump soon, remember to not touch each other unless you want to get welded together forever!

To be fair, the whole 'being together forever' was fine with me, but I'd much rather have a seperate body. So, in an effort of not waking the sleeping cat on my side up, I started slowly picking her up and laying her on next to me.

 **I just figured out in which direction this story will go. I know, but you don't! Fun, isn't it? Also, if the chapters seem short, don't worry, they get bigger over time, I try keeping them at around 1.500 words each, the bigger the better, but that's been my average for the original BnaB too. Also also: Personal shoutouts to Advina, you're still the best. And Tg1210, thanks for reviewing for the first time, I really like any kind of feedback, if anyone has any other remarks, tell me please, I try to make everyone happy.**


	3. First encounter with the Crypton

Mittens P.O.V.

I got woken up by Bolt trying to carefully lay me aside. „Hm... what are you doing Boltie?" - „Oh, you're awake! We are going to hyperjump, and we nobody should touch each other until we're back, you know, because of the whole body-melted-together thing..."

I was pretty sad, and when I got off of him I felt cold, but it would only be for a few seconds. „Are we set?" Everyone answered with 'yes' almost at the same time, and Mauser pushed the button. I can't say I missed the feeling of being atomized and put back together, but I also can't say that I didn't like it.

But this time I thought something went terribly wrong! When I regained conciousness I only saw the inside of Mausers ship, but nothing outisde of the windshield! Under closer investigation though, I noticed that we were just right in front of another spaceship! A pretty big one at that!

„Is this the Crypton?", I asked, looking over to Bolt who was propably thinking the exact same question. „That's it, indeed!" - „Not as big as I imagined it would be... also, isn't it dangerous to end a jump so close to an obstacle?"

The boxer was confused. „We're not close! We still have like... a few thousand kilometers to fly!" - „Really? It seems so near to us!" Bolt was also not that impressed by its size, but then he pointed something out: „Look! There is even a small transporter next to it! It can't be THAT huge..."

When I spotted it, the crypton seemed even smaller. But Mausers response completely changed the way I looked at it: „Uhm... that's actually the Titan over there." - „WHAT?", Bolt, Rhino and I shouted at the same time.

We went to the Titan before: When ExoSkull needed to pick some things up! We were impressed by how big it was, but seeing it next to the crypton made it look so tiny! Just by looking at the side, we could tell that the Titan would fit about 7 times in it, and I haven't even see the width of it!

„Yeah, it's pretty big, isn't it? It's around 13 times larger than the Titan!" We were all stunned. For a time it seemed like Bolt, Rhino and I were the only ones blown away by that fact, but when I saw Allan on the other side of the bench I noticed a his eyes were shining.

Not the shining that you get when you have tears in your eyes, but more the excited, interested and geeky shining. He fought a bit with himself, I could clearly see that, and when he finally got over his fear, he started talking.

And he spoke in a way that I didn't think was possible for him, really proud and with a full voice. „Actually, the Crypton is exactly 13.14 times bigger than the Titan! Dispite having rear engines with a radius equal to that of an average planet, its only half as fast as the Titan!

Its mass is so huge, that the engineers had to place artificial anti gravity generators around the hulls AND inside to not attract meteors or debris, and also so that passengers wouldn't get pulled towards the center of mass, which is NOT the middle by the way, it's Crypton City!"

Everyone in the ship looked at him in disbelieve, his sister however with a proud smile on her face. „Hey! You're getting better at this Al!" But as soon as he said the last word of his essay, he lowered his head and blushed heavily. A very, very shy dog.

Zeta patted Allans back and explained: „Al here isn't that much of a talker, but he's OBSESSED with technology! If you have a question related to any kind of tech, he is the dog to go to! He even modified Capns multicoat! How do ya think the lasercutter got on this thing? You have three guesses!"

I thought it was a rethorical question, but Bolt answered anyways: „Allan built it?" - „Ladies and Gentlemen, the candidate has won a microwave!" The border collie chuckled. „W- well it's not THAT big of a deal... Just a few motors here, ion crystals there, voltage converters in the back, not the b- best work of mine, but it keeps what it p- promises..."

„Are you kidding me? This thing helped me out so many times I stopped counting after the 50th time!" He might have played it off, but I couldn't unsee the spark in his eyes when he mentioned the laser.

I leaned a bit against Bolt and almost started dreaming again. I should have propably been a bit more afraid of what was going to come next, but somehow I wasn't! I knew that with him on my side nothing could hurt me.

Since we went to the biggest ship of the Skulls so far, I wondered how big the interior of it would be. Was it filled with rooms and hallways, or just open space with a few buildings here and there? Allan did mention the rear engines, and if they really were as big as planets... What power would it take to get it to move?

I opened my eyes and looked at the massive wall of metal. There was no way that someone could build this, yet it was right in front of my eyes.

As we got closer to the Crypton I started getting a better understanding of its actual size. After flying for a bit longer a hatch opened up. As we flew in I felt like a mouse running into a hole in the wall of a skyscraper with no roof.

We heared the metal clanking that the arms made and slowly came to a stop. Mauser opened up the visor and let us out, before switching off his ship and leaving it himself. We were, like the time on the Titan, greeted with a salut and „Sir" or „Ma'am" by a guardian.

This reminded Rhino of a something: He stopped and said to the bot: „Name!" - _„This information is classified!"_ \- „Wait, did I do it wrong this time? Ahem... ID!" - _„This information is classified!"_

„I could swear it worked with the other guard..." - „It propably worked on the Titan, or anywhere else, but the Crypton is a bit more secure and... high classification oriented than elsewhere!"

The little hamster sighed and was about to follow us again, but was cut off by Mauser: „You really want to see it?" Of course he wanted to! It's Rhino we were talking about! He nodded and smiled like a mad man.

„Ok then! Guardian, set classification temporarely to E!" - _„Affirmative. New safety class E."_ \- „Your turn buddy!" The hamster cleared his throat and almost yelled at the bot: „Name!" - _„G-1295-CR-C"_

Rhino was more than happy. On his way over to us he bounced up and down giggling and laughing. I have no idea what the deal about having a robot say its name is, but I guess that's just one of Rhinos things.

„So, what's the deal now? Where are we going?" - „Ok, I think I kept it in for long enough. We have discovered a new species, but don't understand it's language! Not even the scans showed any repetitive speech patterns! But there is something that it knows that we need to know, but don't."

„And we are here to magicly find out what it's saying and translate it for you?" - „Oh no, no, your job is a different one! But I will tell you more about it later!" So we were held in the dark again. Well, at least we knew the direction we were going with this, and that's better than nothing, I'd say...

 **In the original BNAB, Mauser always talked about taking Bolt and crew to the Crypton, but never had the chance to. This time however they are ACTUALLY on it! Just wait until they see Crypton City for the first time, I can tell you that already, you can't see from one viewing tower to another on the other side of the City. Welp, it's a big ship, ask Allan...**


	4. A chem-mistery

Bolts P.O.V.

As we walked down the corridor I couldn't help but notice that with every door we passed, the security was getting more and more. We went from normal doors that open automaticly, ID card scanners, over iris scanners to DNA tests.

„What's up with all this secrecy?", Mittens asked, looking around the metallic walls. „Well, you see, where we're going is a highly classified area. Not everyone is supposed to just walk in like 'Hey guys, whatcha doin?'. Actually, you wouldn't be able to even get around the second door!"

Zeta looked over to the two border collies and chuckled. „Yeah, but Capn isn't the only one in this group who has access to the class B areas!" - „Really? Who else?" - „It's Allan! Ain't that right Al?"

„That's true... But Mauser can go to ANY area, so I'm not really that important here." - „Ah, you're just downgrading yourself again!", Lucy laughed, before turning to us. „He might be a shy dog, but he's very loving and caring to his friends!"

„Definately!", Mauser added, „He has a pretty good talent for knowing what other people think and feel, meaning that we all go to him when we need advice from time to time!" The border collies face was starting to fill red.

„Oh guys... thanks for your words, but I'm really not that important right now..." He was playfully pushed by his sister, then we all stopped. „Ok. This is it. We need to go in here, one after one, and don't worry about what happens between this corridor and the actual room."

„Why? Is there something to worry about?" - „Hm? Oh, no, no! But some people might get scared by the desinfection process. It won't hurt you, but we had a few visitors faint because of that."

One after one pressed a button and was guided inside a small chamber. When my turn came, I carefully stepped inside. It smelled weird in there. The door closed behind me and whatever was here with me didn't hesitate to begin.

„ _Please stand still until you get permission to move!"_ And then the ceiling came crashing down. Well, not really, it looked like that in the first moment. What actually happened was that two detached circle halfes were put next to me, which then started spinning.

I was suddenly hulled in laserbeams and strange magnetic fields. Just then I noticed that I couldn't move! I mean, I wasn't supposed to move anyways, but even if I wanted, I was pretty much glued in one place!

„ _Scanning complete! Detected 280,451 signs of bacteria. Disinfecting."_ HOW MANY? Almost 300,000? Where did I go to get hundrets of thousands of bacteria? Grey dust sprayed over me, but I didn't have to cough! It was more liquid than dusty, but still behaved like it...

„ _Disinfection complete! Please proceed!"_ The door in front of me opened up and I could walk again. I looked back at where I came from and shook my body so that the rest of the desinfection liquid would come off, but when I turned my head around I stopped.

I saw Lucy, Allan, Zeta, all had little grey puddles under them and were clean from the watery stuff, only Mittens, who was next to them was different.

Instead of being black with a few white spots on her, she was completely grey, with only her green eyes having a different color. I tried my best to hold my laughter in, but the more I saw my cat struggle with the liquid, the funnier it got, to the point where I just couldn't control myself anymore, and started laughing so badly that I fell on my back in the process.

„Yeah yeah... real funny wags... I get it..." But eventually she cracked too and we both layed down on the floor holding our bellys from laughing. After a while we caught ourselfes again. „Could- could you please help me with this?"

How could I ever say no? „Sh- sure thing!" I helped her up and started brushing the remains off, still laughing and giggling. It was completely like dust now. The others were watching with huge grins on their faces. We didn't even notice that Rhino and Mauser were also inside already.

„Are... you done now?", Mauser asked in a sarcastic way. When we realized how long we took and that we may have had a bit too much fun, we both blushed. „Look how cute... ok, let's move! We are only one door away from our destination."

As we entered the final room, our minds were blown. Not only was it gigantic and full of robots, but it also had an enormous flower thingy inside a glass container that spit out some yellow gas once every couple of seconds.

„What is this?" Before Mauser could answer, Allan found his words quicker. „It's a 'Gasopendric', one of the smaller versions! It's capable of producing a highly neurotoxic gas, which we harverst to manipulate into a liquid: The yellow liquid!"

I was confused. „The... yellow liquid?" - „We use it to enrichen diodium crystals which are used for mining even the hardest materials!" - „So, you're telling me, that even though you can come up with names like 'Gasopendric' or the slime material that sounds like temperature, you call it 'Yellow liquid'?"

„Well, to be fair, we just kinda started using the name when we didn't know what it does, and it has just become the name for it ever since..." I couldn't believe I was talking to the same Allan as a few minutes ago!

„So? Where are your crazy farms of these plants?", Mittens sarcasticly asked. „Eeeeh, funny story, uhm... this is the only plant left." - „Why don't you go get a few more?" - „Because this is the last one in the entire us known universe."

My mind was even more blown than before. „You are standing in front of the last Gasopendric alive! Well, it's pretty much our own fault, we should have never blown up the planet it came from... That's why we are trying to find a way to clone things!"

Wait... didn't Mauser tell us when he first met us after a while that they already had clones? „Hey, didn't you say something about clones and how you already have them?"

Even though the question was clearly directed towards the light brown boxer, the border collie took the word. „Indeed! But they aren't identical on all levels! We are able to reconstruct the atoms and cells, but we're still struggling with copying DNA. That's why all clones either fall apart after a few hours or never even... live in the first place."

That was dark. „And you need the yellow liquid to stay forever?" - „Technically nothing stays forever, but yes, it shouldn't at least vaporize itself right after being constructed!" - „So this liquid... has DNA and or is a living creature?"

A short silence in the room amongst us animals. „I... I really shouldn't talk too much about it, the classification is too high for outsiders to know. S- sorry guys..."

And thus he became the normal shy Allan again. Something was weird about the way he turned that question down. „Thank's for tellin everyone Al, but we gotta go! Ain't that right Capn?"

„Correct. Just take the elevator and go to facility 17! I'm going to talk to the head professor for a second." Whatever was inside that facility, something told me it had something to do with this strange liquid. And we weren't even five minutes from finding out.

 **Did Allan talk too much already? Well, I can tell you, I don't use a script or anything, I just flat out write whatever I think the characters would do in that situation according to their personalities, but I love tethering little sideplots together, just so that you, the reader, can say: „Oh hey, so that's what was going on with it!" Anyways, goodbye und schönen Abend noch!**


	5. The alpmare

Bolts P.O.V.

The air was cold and filled with a strange scent. It only grew as we aproached the door that had '17' written on it. Just before we could reach it, Allan turned to us and said: „Uhm... yep. Here we are. Now, whatever you see inside of this room will stay in that room, ok?"

We didn't really have a choice. Nobody refused and we all got to see the wonders of... „Oh my god..." What I saw in front of me horrified me. „Is... is this the creature we talked about earlier?" - „Yes that's it! I suggest you don't make any sudden movements and, most of all, do never, NEVER look directly in its eyes!"

I was concerned. „Why not?" - „Believe me wh- when I say that, you really don't want to know... It messes with your head." We stepped closer, and got to see what it really was. It definately wasn't happy about the cage it was in.

It looked like mix between a panther and a bear, but with more bigger muscles and less fur. The sounds that came from it were mostly clicking sounds, but sometimes screeches and hissing. There were already a few robots standing around it, bots, not halfbots, and they typed something in their tablets that I could only assume was in the language of ExoSkulls home planet.

A few seconds later Mauser came in. „Hey Bolt, do you remember when the commander went to the Titan to pick something up and then went to the Crypton to drop it off?" - „You mean the reason why we stole the cruiser in the first place?"

„Maybe. Well, here you have your answer to the question that everyone had: What did he take from one concueror to another?" - „I... never asked that que-" - „But you thought it!" - „I actually didn't..."

The boxer stared into my eyes. „Now you know anyways." He turned around and guided us over to a contraption with wires and cables dangling over four beds. „What exactly is this now?", Mittens asked with clear signs of worry on her face.

„Ok, let me explain it this way:", Allan started, completely cutting off Mauser who wanted to answer first. Sometimes it's just hillarious to watch. „When we discovered this species, the halfbot who found it got trapped inside its nightmare glare, as we call it.

He went through a lot of things before exiting it again, and at that time, was horrified by what he saw. But he told us that inside of this creatures mind was a code! One that, if added with another one we already found by accident, could give us a formular for rearanging the structure of living cells!

And most importantly: It uses a variation of the yellow liquid! That's where you come in! You are supposed to get inside this things mind and find out what the code is!" Now it all came together.

„But why don't you send your best men in?" - „The answer is simple: It knows how to manipulate the mind of our people perfectly, since it already had a chance of learning it. But we hope that it will try and use the same tricks against you, and you are definately not afraid of the things that our people are!"

Sounded logical. „But why us then?" That's when Mauser came to words: „I thought you would be perfectly suitable for this mission! You are pretty fearless after all." Not quite true, but I couldn't think of anything that I was afraid of.

„And... why can only four of us go in there?", Mittens asked as she took her eyes from the mashine. „If we want to pull you out of there, we need to emulate the creatures and your minds to virtual components, meaning that we need a lot of computer power to run it smoothly and without problems. Sadly, even our best computers on the Crypton can only do so much before overheating."

„And we are just supposed to... walk in his mind and find a code? How do we even know what to look for?" - „I am monitoring you from out here. We should rather decide who goes in and who stays out!"

At first nobody seemed to want to go there. Being inside a nightmareish creatures mind wasn't exactly how I wanted to spend my day, but something had to happen, and I would definately not sit around in safety while my friends were going through the unseen horrors of whatever we had in front of us!

We all looked at each other. We were seven animals, only four could go in. I raised my paw, and immidiately got followed by Mittens. „Mitts, I don't think that you should do this." - „Nope, I'm not letting you go in there alone!"

„So we have two more slots. Anyone else?" Of course. The boxer also raised his paw. Rhino was about to do the same, but he got outrun by Lucy. „Aw, why can't I do something cool?", he frowned. „Don't worry, I had something else for you in mind anyways! But first we need to get our four explorers in."

I still couldn't believe that Allan was talking. He was completely in his element. We walked up to the beds, or more accurate, slightly tilted metal sheet with a piece of cloth on it. The creature in the back still made horrifying noises and sent a shiver through my body.

„Put him up for virtualization, boys!" The bots responded with a quick _„Yes sir"_ and went on doing whatever was needed for the process. For whatever reason, in that moment I really missed the lawn. I hope Penny is ok...

I hopped onto the contraption, and at least it was not as bad as I thought it would be, but still pretty uncomfortable. Reminded me of when Five carried me through the forest in his arms! The day I found out I love Mittens...

„Are you ready?", Allan asked from behind a control panel. „I don't think so, don't we need to get hooked up first?" The border collie chuckled and said: „I actually meant if you're mentally prepared for this!"

Good question. „Maybe..." The thing in the cage suddenly started resisting, and threw the bot inside around. „Don't worry about him, there is no great damage that the creature can do physically!" The bot got ripped apart.

„Well... forget I said anything. Glad we don't hire halfbots up here." As I tried finding a comfortable spot to lay down, four hands came up from the table and grabbed my paws. „Don't worry about that either, but we need you to hold still while we plug the electrodes onto your arms and legs!"

Fair enough. While we got little cables attached to our bodies, I heared a zap from the other side of the room. Since I was of course unable to move, I could only assume that it was the thing in the cage. Reminded me of something: „Hey, what's this creature even called?"

„We don't have a proper name yet, so we just call it 'Alpmare' for now." Alpmare... weird name for something like this.

A ring of metal was put at the lower end of the bed and started spinning. „This is a scanner that we need to virtualize you body. It won't hurt, but I suggest keeping your eyes closed when it moves over your head."

Laserbeams and lights, I was getting used to things like that. The ring moved over my legs, and I could kinda feel it, but maybe I just imagined it. It went over my chest and came to a stop directly above my eyes.

From there on it took longer to move, propably because that's where my brain is. From somewhere I heared faint noises simmilar to those of a fire extinguisher. As if Allan could read my thoughts, he answered me: „Yes indeed, we use them to cool the computers down."

He waited a bit. „I already have most of your brain activity here, Mittens, I know what you think. … Yes Mauser, I know." That was amazing. He could actually see what my mind had to say! And it was also scary because-

„Don't worry, I won't spy on you with this. You don't have to fear about your privacy, Bolt." Whoa. I haven't even thought it to an- „End? Well, the AI we use to scan your mental activity can also autocomplete sentences! Not accurately everytime, but it's pretty useful."

But just before I could laugh about how insane that was, I got hit my a bright blue light. The last thing I heared was Allans voice saing: „It's working! And we didn't even need a testrun for it!", before getting sucked up by lightning tubes.

 **Yup. That just happened. You propably wonder how the inside of an Alpmares mind looks like, right? Weeeeeeell, I have no idea too. BUT: That means we can get surprised together! So, goodbye und schönen Abend noch!**


	6. Complications

Rhinos P.O.V.

My friends just layed there without moving. In the last second before the scanners shut down they all jolted into the air and then just stopped doing anything. _„Heartrate monitor online."_ A few seconds passed.

„ _All subjects vital activity normal."_ The metallic voice came from the ceiling. „Are they in?", Zeta asked, followed by Allan shaking his head. „They still h- have to be fragmented and defragmented inside.

„ _Beginning fragmentation on subject one."_ \- „That's Mauser!" - _„Attempting fragmentation"_ A display somewhere on the wall showed up. _„One percent"_ So it began. I was kinda sad that I couldn't be in his place, I would love to go on an adventure down someones deepest inner mind...

„ _Ten percent"_ Seemed to be going normal. _„Twenty percent"_ Zeta was slowly losing his patience. „Hey, can this thing go faster?" - _„Fifty percent"_ \- „S- sorry, we're already using most of our power..."

„ _Eighty percent"_ The display now showed a different image. It was a dark and scary looking picture of what seemed to be a cave with spikes on the walls. _„One hundret percent! Attempting defragmentation!"_

It was at this point that I noticed how the picture wasn't a picture, it was a video! A light blue glow showed up right in front of the camera, and began to form the legs of a dog! _„Ten percent"_ Slowly this glow took shape as an actual dog, putting pieces together and giving them color. _„Fifty percent"_

It was clearly the boxer who had been placed in this world. When the defragmentation was at a hundret percent, Mauser started to move. Not the actual him of course, his physical body was still on the bed, but the virtual one.

„ _Am I good? How do I look?"_ His voice was a bit messed up, but that wasn't that big of a deal. „Pretty good Capn! How's the weather in there?" No response. Zeta asked again. „He can't hear you. You need to wear this headset."

As the white golden retriever started talking to his friend, the computer voice announced that 'subject 2' was now getting in. „And that should be Lucy!" A second time the display showed a glow.

It slowly put together a border collie, and Mausers expression changed when as she was getting built. _„Defragmentation complete! Cooling down."_ The noise of the fire extinguishers got louder, and Lucy was now complete.

„ _It worked! It did work, right?"_ Allan pressed a button on his control panel. „Y- yes, it worked. You two are now together in this things brain. C- can you tell me if you feel any difference to when you were in the r- real world?"

„ _Not quite, but I do feel a little bit light headed..."_ \- „Ok, until the other two are in, you sh- should just lay down and rest." The other border collie nodded and sunk to the ground.

Suddenly, the computers voice came again: _„Temperature in normal condition. Beginning defragmentation on subject 3!"_

I looked over to Zeta and then Allan, and jumped in excitement again, because it was Bolt who layed on the bed with the number 3!

Bolts P.O.V.

All I saw was a bright emptiness, and I was hulled in lightning bolts. It wasn't painful, just strange. Actually, it just tickled a bit! But suddenly my vision changed, and I felt normal again. In front of me was only Mittens, who immidiately came running over to me.

„Hey! We all made it!", she cheerfully announced, before hugging me. „Where are the two others?" I couldn't find them anywhere. „They're already gone, but we talked about what this is going to be!"

„And it's going to be what exactly?" - „This is apperantly the step between the simulation and realtiy, so we are neither in, nor out. At least that's what Mauser told me..." - „Well, who's next?"

Just as I asked that, my paws were shaking. „Looks like it's you! Even though I was here first..." Yet another blue lightning started flashing and wrapping around my legs. „Oh god... what's happening?" - „You're being 'fragmentated'. We'll meet on the other side, Boltie!"

My hind legs were now completely hulled by the bolts, and it went over to my belly. „See you over there, Mitts!" We hugged for the last time in the white nothingness. Soon afterwards my vision started to blurr, and I could feel myself getting tired. The last thing I heared before fainting was Mittens saying: „I love you". Then it all went black.

Rhinos P.O.V.

„ _Fragmentation complete! Attempting defragmentation!"_ , the computer voice said. Then Bolts legs showed up. Slowly he was being put together. When he was fully done, he looked around himself. _„A cave? I imagined something a bit more terrifying..."_

„Well, I guess caves are kinda scary too." - _„True. So, you can see us, hear us and read our thoughts?"_ \- „N-not quite, your thoughts are safe when you're in there. But I can read Mittens' mind right now!"

„ _Keep it private, she's gonna come here in a second anyways!"_ As if the computer was obeying him, the metallic voice announced: _„Beginning fragmentation on subject 4!"_

„Ok guys, when th- the cat is defragmentated, I'm going to set you two up for a special mission!" I was hyped. „What mission?", Zeta asked, keeping an eye on the display. „The elite needs help with a stealth takeover of a b- building. And the hamster has exactly what is needed for stealth: His low size and weight!"

I jumped and shouted: „HA! I knew that would be perfect one day!" - _„Fragmentation complete!"_ But suddenly things turned out unexpected. _„Warning! A subject is expierencing internal problems with subject 0! Defragmentation might cause system error!"_ The whole room was flashing red, and a siren started howling.

Suddenly Allans jaw sacked down. „THE ALPMARE IS REFUSING!" - _„Subject 4 trapped in system cache. One minute remaining! Attempt defragmentation?"_

The screen now showed a clock counting down from 60 seconds. The only other thing that was displayed was one single word: 'Continue?'

Everything started to slow down. Allans paws were shaking and moving over the buttons. _„30 seconds remaining!"_ \- „I CAN'T PULL HER OUT!" The border collie was in complete panic mode.

„ _Ten seconds remaining!"_ \- „We only have one chance! If I lose this, we're going to lose her!" With that he typed something in. The siren immidiately stopped, and the red light vanished. _„Attempting defragmentation!"_

We were all shaking. _„Attempt failed. Second attempt."_ I had to sit down, otherwhise I would have fainted. _„Attempt failed. Starting last attempt!"_ The display changed. It now showed the percentage just as before.

The number was creeping up, slowly reaching 50, and then it stopped. It just simply stopped. „What... is happening..."

My heart was racing in my chest. Suddenly the percentage went flying over everything, finally stopping at 100, and displaying a message that I will never forget in my entire life: Please help me, I don't want to do this, Bolt, come here, I'm scared!

Those were Mittens thoughts. _„Defragmentaion complete. Warning, no ability to track subject 4. Current status: Yellow."_

„Wh- what does that mean?", I asked, still shocked. The answer was even more terrifying than the message on the screen: „We know that she's in there, we know her vitals, but we don't know where she is and can't pull her out."

… **Trapped alone inside the alpmares mind … This can't be good.**


	7. Fear

Allans P.O.V.

„ _WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'YOU DON'T KNOW WHERE SHE IS'?"_ , Bolt yelled through the speakers when I informed him about the situation. _„HOW COULD YOU LOSE HER IN THE FIRST PLACE?"_

My eyes were filling up with water. Oh great. Now I was going to cry. That's the last thing I wanted to happen. Why do I have to be so sensitive over everything? Yet again, I messed it up, so I guess my reaction had a point.

„I- I'm sorry, th- the alpmare made pr- problems!" The white shepherd stopped shouting, but was nowhere near cooling down. _„Do you at least know if she's ok?"_ I looked over at the display over the seemingly sleeping cat. 'Heart rate: Fast' and 'Blood pressure: High'.

„She's scared, but alive." Bolt sacked to the ground and coverd his eyes. A little while passed and he said: _„This is all my fault. I knew something bad was going to happen!"_ \- „Do you want to come out?"

„ _NO! Not while Mittens is still in here!"_ Suddenly Mauser stepped forward. _„It's not your mistake Bolt. This creature messed with our computers! You have nothing to do with this."_ \- _„You know what? You're right! It's not my fault!"_

The light brown boxer started smiling in a comforting way. Bolt looked at him and stood up. _„IT'S YOURS!"_ Mauser almost tripped on his own legs while stumbling backwards. His smile was gone.

„ _What do you mean?" - „If YOU wouldn't have come to us and asked us to help YOU out, WE wouldn't be in this dilemma!"_ The situation was about to escalate, if it wasn't for my sister to step between the two.

„ _HEY! While you two are fighting, Mitten is still out there and-" - „Mittens." - „What?" - „Her name is 'Mittens' not 'Mitten'." - „Whatever, we need to find her! What you're doing won't help her in any way!"_

The other two were silent. Then Bolt sighed. _„I guess you're right. We should go now."_ Suddenly his head snapped to the camera. I don't know how it looks like, but they definately know where it is, and that I can see them.

„ _Allan, can't you roam around and track anything?"_ \- „I'm afraid not Bolt, since this is an emulated d- dream, the only parts where something is going on is in a small r- radius around other dreamers. I am bound to your location." - _„Alright. Let's not waste any more time then."_

Mittens P.O.V.

I was horrified. Everything around me was dark, making spooky sounds and generally creepy. „Ok Mittens... If you could survive the allies, then you can survive this. Just start walking and everything will be ok..."

I told myself to move, but I just couldn't! It was like I was glued in place! I felt like crying at this point. Completely alone, having no idea where to go, and worst of all: For the first time in a long one, I wasn't with Bolt.

Together we could have easily made this, he would tell me not to worry, and I wouldn't worry because he would be with me. This time however nobody could comfort me, nobody could protect me, or peek around the corner while I was keeping an eye behind us.

Everything I knew was that I would never want any kind of adventure with the Skulls EVER.

Suddenly I heared a crack behind me. I threw my body around to look at a dead end. No possibility of going this way. „H- Hello? Is anyone there?" No answer. „I'm n- not scared of you! Just come out and I will spare your life!"

A deep growling sound came through the air, almost like laughter. „I'm serious! I've got my claws! If you want to live, then show yourself!" The cave laughed at me again.

Then, a ghostly whisper flew through my head saying: _„But you don't have any!"_ My entire body refused my brain and I just rolled myself into a ball. _„You don't have to lie to me, Mittens!"_ \- „Wh- who are you?"

„ _You know me too well!"_ The voice cracked. _„Mittens? Are you here?"_ I snapped my head up. Out of the fog came a familliar dog. „Bolt!" - _„Mittens!"_ He found me! I almost fell down as I was running over to him, but when I was in clear line of sight, I stopped.

He was looking to the ground. „B- Bolt? Are you ok?" - _„Yes Mittens. I am very good actually! I can now finally do the thing that I always wanted to do, from the first time we met!"_

I slowly walked backwards. Something wasn't right about this! _„Do you know the only kind of good cat?"_ I bumped against a wall. „Bolt you're scaring me!" - _„The only good cat, Mittens..."_

He lifted his head and revealed two glowing red dots for his eyes. _„Is a dead one."_ Out of nowhere the white shepherd threw himself at me. I screamed and jumped away. He missed me by a millimeter.

I had no time to think about what was happening, all I knew was that I had to run. Very fast and very far. _„There is no hiding, cat!"_ I realized that it was the alpmare trying to scare me, granted, it worked, but still, hearing threats from Bolt directed at me was hurting me more than he could physically hurt me.

„ _AND THERE IS ALSO NO RUNNING! YOU! CAN'T! ESCAPE! ME!"_ I ran faster than I thought I could run. Never in my life was I this fast before. I had to find the others as quickly as possible!

(The actual) Bolts P.O.V.

„MITTENS? CAN YOU HEAR ME?" Nothing. Again. For the eleventh time in a row. Allan left a few minutes ago, he said he had to equip Zeta and Rhino for a mission. I was definitely not fond of that idea.

We were walking down a straight corridor. It was a pretty long one too, with only a few corners or other tunnels here and there. „How far could she be? I mean we were supposed to be in the same area, she can't be on the other side of the cave, can she?"

„Maybe... But I have no idea how this works. You would have to ask Allan about that." I yelled her name out again. Still nothing. Suddenly we heared a strange noise. It came from the wall next to me.

„What was that?", Mauser asked while stepping away. I heared a crunching coming closer. Out of nowhere a gigantic worm shot out of the wall, with a round mouth opening and closing on its front. Lucy jumped back and screamed.

The thing hissed, and slithered on the ground towards me. My initial reaction was to get into a fighting position, but before it could hit me it slammed on the floor. The gatling guns on Mausers multicoat were smoking as they came to a rest.

„Whoa... thanks man..." - „Hey, you would have done the same thing if you were in my positon." We stepped closer to investigate the body, but Lucy just stood back, completely grossed out. It looked like an ordinary worm, just bigger, and it had a round mouth with big teeth all around.

The hole that the worm came from was almost perfectly circular, and reached deep into the stones. „What is this and why is this?", Lucy screamed from behind. „It seems like a snake or a worm of some sort..."

„I h- hate worms!" My head snapped up. „Hold on! Do you fear them? Are you afraid?" - „Of course! These slimy, fat, chewing things are disgusting even in their normal size, but THIS is just a whole new level!"

„Didn't Allan say the alpmare uses our fears against us? If this is what Lucys part is, what else is going to come?" - „I have no idea. But imagine the terror that Mittens is going through right now!"

I chuckled and turned away. „This is the one thing I'm not worried about. Mittens isn't afraid of anything!" - „Hm... not even losing you?" I stopped and turned around. „Oh... my god."

 **Fun fact in a not so fun situation: When I prewrote some of this chapter I got a review from Wooling Mations saying: „I wonder how BOLT is going to take it in he'll propably get angry at Mauser", and at this point I already wrote exactly this part. You can't imagine how much that made me laugh. Also, huge shoutouts to Advina, a big help and inspiration here. That's about it, goodbye und schönen Abend noch!**


	8. Rejection

Bolts P.O.V.

I couldn't hear my friends anymore, had no idea where they went. I also wasn't in the cave for some reason, but I knew this place... Then it hit me: It was the house on the truck that we used for getting home!

And I wasn't alone! „Mittens! Rhino!", I shouted, as my mind didn't know what to do. „You're alive!" Rhino was confused, but still his happy own self. Mittens however wasn't the way I remembered her.

„Yeah, sure dog. Where did THAT realization come from?" The sarcastic tone... „Oh Mitts I'm so glad you're ok!" I tired hugging her, but I ended up hitting the ground in front of me. „What are you doing Bolt? And stop calling me Mitts!"

This wasn't happening, right? „But... What is going on with you?" - „I should ask you the same question." - „Wh- Mittens, I love you!" The cat stepped back. „Whoa. No, no, no. Definately not. You're a dog, I'm a cat, I don't love anyone, you're just weird."

My heart shattered in so many ways. „But, you love me too! You kept telling me!" - „In what alternate universe did I tell you that I love you? I'm just guiding you back home so you can pretend being a superdog again!"

„I don't wanna be a superdog anymore! We all live happily in Pennys house, as a family, and us two as mates!" - „HEY! Stop saying that! This never happened, and will never happen!"

Suddenly I noticed something. „Alpmare? ALPMARE! I KNOW THAT YOU'RE DOING THIS! CAN'T YOU JUST PUT SPIDERS IN OUR WAY? DO YOU REALLY HAVE TO GO FOR EMOTIONAL DAMAGE?"

Rhino and Mittens looked at me as if I was mentally ill. The hamster was even more shocked however that his biggest star was in love with his worst enemy. „Who are you yelling at?" - „Don't you get it? This is all just a dream! A halluzination! None of this is real!"

„You're creeping me out, dog." - „In my world, you and I are together! As mates! I love you, and you love me back! Why can't the Mittens of THIS world-" - „Because you're a dog and I'm a cat! This will never work!"

„Please... admit it! You feel something too!" - „Right now I only feel the wish of getting as far away from you as possible." There was nothing I could do, except for yelling at the creature. „ALRIGHT YOU GOT ME! CAN'T YOU AT LEAST SCARE MAUSER NOW?"

„Who is Mauser?", Mittens asked, with Rhino slowly going to the door and leaving. „It's the dog who brought us together! Or at least the whole Skulls thing got us together! We three were trapped on a different planet, but as a team we could safe our world from-"

„Ok, you clearly hit your head a little too hard there. I am just here to get you to Hollywood!" - „NO! NO PLEASE! WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME? WHY DID I AGREE TO THIS?"

(The actual) Mittens P.O.V.

I finally found a place to be safe from Bolt. Just thinking this line made a tear come up to my eyes. Where I was, he could definately not find me. I only hoped that the real Bolt was doing fine.

A faint cracking came from the wall behind me. I looked around and put my ear against it. The sound was coming closer, and before I could properly react, a worm shot out of the caves side. I screamed and ran away, directly into the arms of evil Bolt.

„ _Well who do we have here?"_ \- „P- please don't hurt me..." - _„Oh, I was sent here for a whole other reason!"_ Out of his eyes came some sort of hologram, displaying a setting that I only knew too well. The house on the truck. And I could see my dog!

„ _Yes, this is indeed him! And look at what you're doing to him!"_ The picture got closer to the white shepherd as he was about to cry over the fake me. _„This is his worst nightmare! You not loving him anymore!"_

„But I AM loving him! Why would I-" - _„Watch!"_ The hologram showed Bolts attempts of not losing his mind. It really hurt me.

„Where is he?" - _„He is trapped in a halluzination! And you are going in with him!"_ For a moment I was happy that he would put me in there together with Bolt, but then I remembered that that would have been too good to actually happen.

Before I could run away, a green bright light flashed in front of my eyes and I fainted.

Mausers P.O.V.

„How could we lose Bolt? He was right next to us the whole time!", Lucy asked. „I'm not sure, but it could happen to any of us two too." - „A lot of 'to's I see... At least we have us..." My heart was racing a bit faster, but I cooled down quickly.

„Yep." - _„Guys? Mauser, can you hear me?"_ That was Allan! „Yes I can." - _„How are you in there?"_ \- „It's deep and cold and scary. Any other questions?" A quick pause. _„Where is Bolt?"_ \- „You know, actually I was going to ask you the exact same thing. He just kinda vanished..."

„ _Oh what? Uhm... Ok, let me see, I mean I do have his coordinates, and also a rough idea of his vitals, but no visuals."_ \- „Are... are you serious? Are you kidding me?" - _„But I also have your coordinates! I can guide you there!"_

„Then do it! Man, I can't believe that we lost him..." - _„Alright, just go forward for a step please."_ I did as he told me to. A short silence. _„So, by going forward your x coordinate decreases and your y coordinate increases. Please turn about 45 degrees."_

I guess what he was trying to do made sense. _„Now walk forward."_ Another silence. _„Ok, I made a quick compass here! You need to go... lemme see... the tunnel to your right should get you to the others faster!"_

„Thanks man." - _„No problem."_ \- „Hey Lucy, I think we should really hurry up... I don't have a good feeling about this..." - „Me neither..." And so we ran down the cave in the direction that Allan gave us. Let's hope it's really the faster way.

As we sprinted, I gazed over to the border collie. My heart went faster and faster. I somehow had to win her for myself. And if I could help Bolt, I could help myself. Or at least ask Bolt for help.

„WORM!" The second she screamed that, I already extended my guns. These things were big, but not durable. I just grabbed her collar and moved faster. She refused going any further but I knew better.

„Come on! If we keep standing around they will get us! Just run!" - „No- way! I- am not- going anywhere!", she studdered under her heavy breath. „You leave me no choice then!" Ok, packing her and throwing her on my back so that I ran for us both might have not been the best idea, but a good enough one for now.

Strangely though, she didn't struggle, and just rested on my multicoat. I slowed down, but tried keeping my speed. Suddenly I had an idea: „Alright Lucy, hold on tight, let's boost forward!"

Her grip got stronger and my multicoat opened up, unfolding two mini engines. They spun up and shot blue orbs behind me. Slightly tilted upwards so the weight wouldn't be that much, and I immidiately felt the relief.

I could now move in slow motion, but run faster. „How are you up there?" - „Just keep going, they're right behind us!" Uh oh... I couldn't risk looking back, so I had to rely fully on my passenger.

Another problem: The straight path now split in two. „HEY ALLAN! WHICH WAY?", I yelled over the sound of the turbos. The answer came immidiately: _„Left!"_

And so I turned. Another worm shot out of the side. No match for me. „If this is what the alpmare keeps throwing at us then we'll have no problems at all!" - „Yeah you're saying that now, but wait until we get to the true horrors!" Hopefully that was the only true horror in here...

 **I honestly know if this is dark or just sad, but it's the style that this story will go through right now. Also, I should let you know that I'm not the guy for happy ends. Actually, I normally write things that end with either terrible losses for the „Good guys", the „Bad guys" winning, or just end somewhere before the goal could be achieved. Technically EVERYTHING could happen to them. I mean, stories are a bit less fun to read when you know that everything will be fine afterwards, right? (Also Wooling Mations is a master at predicting things...)**


	9. Reunion

Bolts P.O.V.

I felt like I was crushed between two blocks of concrete. I knew that the alpmare wouldn't get me out of this, so I had to live in a fake world where my cat doesn't love me. I should have never trusted Mauser. It was a mistake trusting him the first time, but my doom the second time.

All I could do was lay in a corner and wait. But then I had an idea. „Allan? Allan can you hear me?" Immidiately the black cat looked over to me. „What's it this time?", she asked. „ALLAN!" - „Who is Allan?"

I sighed. He couldn't hear me. „He's the guy who brought me into a creatures mind. You are in this creatures mind right now just to screw with me!" The look on her face said everything. She didn't believe me.

Just a few seconds later a door opened up, and out came... me? „So Mittens, I've been thinking about what you said and... What the actual-" - „Oh hey there. It's me: You." We both just kinda awkwardly stared at each other.

„Are you... me?" - „I'm the you in a different world." - „That's impossible." Mittens stood up and walked over to us. „Yep. He also comes from a world where you love me." - „WHAT?" The other white shepherd stumbled backwards.

„How? She's a cat! You can't... I mean why would... WHAT?" - „My exact reaction." I sighed again. „Ok ok, I understand. But believe me, it all happened in combination with a lot of other things."

I was just about to explain how we ended up on Maximus and nearly died, but I was interrupted by a green bright light next to me. We all covered our eyes. When I opened mine, I nearly cried. It was Mittens!

And something told me that THIS was the real one. „B- Bolt?" - „Mittens? Did Allan bring you here?" That was my question to see if she was her. „Allan had nothing to do with this, the fake you got me-"

She couldn't even finish her sentence, I was already hugging her, and somehow it ended in a kiss. „Please, promise me: We are never doing something like this again." - „Do you really have to ask that?" I couldn't help but kissing her again. I was just too relieved not to.

„Uhm... Hello? We are still here.", the dream Mittens reminded us. „Oh yes, sorry... You're propably not used to seeing... yourself with the other..." - „You got it." My cat poked me and pulled me over to the side, where she whispered: „As I got here, the alpmare told me that we need to get these two together somehow in order to leave!"

„What? How are we going to do this?" - „Well, they're us, so we need to think... did you already have feelings for me when we were on our way home?" I blushed a tiny bit and mumbled: „Yes, but I didn't know what it meant."

„Ok, so, I can tell you right now, I developed feelings for you on the ride too, but I was still in denial about it..." She too blushed and continued: „We somehow need to give them a little push in the right direction!" - „Well yes, but how?"

„I'd say we say we talk to ourselves about it, tell them how great the other is and see how things go!" Not a bad idea... „Are you sure that we need to get them together in order to get out?" Mittens nodded and gave me a signal to start.

Mausers P.O.V.

„ _Ok, now, the n- next turn should be a decition between l- left and right. You have to go left."_ Fair enough. „If you say so..." The worms were long gone and Lucy climbed down from my back. „Thanks for picking me up, I couldn't have done it without you!"

„Ah, no problem! You're safe around me!" - _„This should be it then! Your coordinates are matching with the ones from Bolt!"_ \- „Shouldn't we see him then?" - _„Well, your x and y coordinates match, but your z coordinate is still off by a little bit..."_ Oh great. We had to dig.

Luckily my multicoat was equipped with a mining tool, otherwhise I would have had to do it with my bare paws. Not a particulary hard task, but still, digging this would take forever. „I'm just going to trust you on this one Allan."

„ _You don't really have a choice."_ Well, he was right about that. My drill was not even half a meter into the ground when it sacked down. The floor wasn't even half a meter thick. „Ok... that was quick."

„What was quick?" - „I pushed through the dirt. We are standing over another tunnel!" - „Are you serious?" - „Wait, let me remove the other stuff aswell!"

I dug a bigger hole. To my surprise, the 'tunnel' was actually an extremely deep drop down! „Should we risk it?" Good question... „I wouldn't jump, what if there are worms down there?" - „But Bolt and Mittens are directly under us! Come on Mauser, this might be our only chance!"

„Ok, ok. We're doing it. But hold on tight, I will let my bouncer do all the work!" - „Don't worry!" She also said something else under her breath, but I couldn't quite understand it. No time to think anyways."

Bolts P.O.V.

My virtual counterpart and I were in another room, alone. I had some things to discuss. No idea why the alpmare told my cat that we need to get these virtual dream Bolt and Mittens together. Propably for its own amusement.

Very, very confusing to say the least. „So, this might be strange for you to understand, but let me explain it like this: I am the you from a different world, because this is the emulated dream of a nightmarish creature. I am only here because I'm trying to help out a friend."

„So nothing that ever happened in my life is real?" - „I'm sorry you have to find out, but the memories you have are mine, but changed a bit." - „So all my life is... a lie?"

Oh god, this was getting fundamental. „No, no! Your life is very real, but it's actually mine, now you're in control over it!" - „Will I stop existing when the dream is over?" - „I... I have no idea... I hope not!"

„Why would you care? You are the actual me! You are the one who has a great ol' time out there!" I sighed. „I care because you are me. And your actions do have an impact on my life aswell!" That confused him.

„How's that?" - „In order for us to get out, and safe you... you need to get together with this words Mittens." Now his expression was shocked. „Wha- what? That's impossible!" - „I thought the same way too... but I am happier than ever now that I found out it isn't impossible!"

The dream Bolt was still sceptical. „Look at it like this: She is the one who helped you get back to Penny, right?" - „Uhm... actually we're still on the way there." - „Oh yeah... Ok, spoiler alert, you make it and safe Penny from a fire."

„WHAT?" - „There is another fake Bolt, and he gets scared and knocks over a torch or a fire holder or whatever and the set starts burning... You'll get what I mean when you get there. Anyways: She is the one who got you ba-"

„Wait! You're telling me that Mittens... is helping me, and then stays with me?" - „Yep." - „How long did it take you to realize that you..." He blushed. A good step in the right direction. „... Love... her?"

„It took me quite a while, I didn't know what the feeling was until a friendly halfbot told me." - „What's a-" - „Just don't ask, I'm still questioning this whole thing..." - „So, in your world, Mittens and you, which means me, are... what are we in your world?"

„Mates. We're mates." - „For how long?" - „Quite a while now!" - „Wow... Must be pretty weird seeing me, which means you, not loving the one I'm supposed to..." - „Not nearly as weird as it must be for you I guess. And you DO love her!"

He blushed again. I was hitting the spot! „I really don't know..." Nevermind. „Ok. Well, let me tell you something: Your Mittens loves you!" Now his head went full tomato. „R- really?" I had him. „H- how do you know?"

„My Mittens told me that she had feelings for you on the ride here already! That means that this Mittens also does!" He sighed. „But is it right?" - „That you love her?" - „Wha- no, I mean yes, I mean... I don't... love her... but, if I did, just out of context here, what if... would it be normal?"

„Totally! Look buddy... wait, did I just call myself 'buddy'? Very confusing... Love isn't just a day to day thing! You have to earn it, and be wise about it! But sometimes you can't controll it, feel things you don't want to, or want something you think you can't have. That's when you know that you're in love."

„Oh god...", he whispered under his breath. Part one done. I felt like Mauser at that point. Let's hope that Mittens got her counterpart ready too...

 **Reunited together and forever. At least I hope that I don't come up with something else for them to go through... Although... Well, that's it from me, sorry for the delay, I've been busy, and still am busy, with a lot of other things right now, and it will go on like that for the next days too, so just a warning.**


	10. Back at last

**(Guys, I might have messed up with the appostroves for a very long time... I'll try to get them right from now on, I've noticed my mistake, we don't use them in Germany, I might still make that mistake from time to time but I'm trying not to. Now on with the chapter)**

Mitten's P.O.V. **(Exactly that.)**

„No." That's been the only answer I've got out of my fake me since I started talking. „Come on... Give him a try! He's the most loving dog ever!" - „It's not about how loving he is, I just can't think of myself with... well... a dog!"

I sighed. „I know. I know because I'm you. I felt exactly like that. And it really first kicked in when we were alone in the house for a while! It would be boring without him!" She looked at me as if I was a monster.

„I've been alone most of my life! I can live without him!" - „No you can't. Admit it. You can't." - „Tha- I- Wha- Of course!"

She started studdering. Good sign. „You are now going to go to Bolt, your one, and tell him that you love him!" - „No." Same place where we started. But before I could even think about convincing her again, a loud noise interrupted me.

It sounded like an electric impulse, followed by something landing on the roof. Immidiately Bolt shot out of the door. „What was that?" - „I have no idea... We should check that out!"

Good for me that I remembered the way to the stairs from when I was in this house in the real world! We didn't even have to go to the roof though, as we were greeted by two VERY familliar dogs.

„Mauser?" - „Mauser!" - „That's me!" It was such a relief to see him there, aswell as Lucy, but Bolt was in a different mood. „Good thing you're here. Great. Now we're all trapped inside! Any rescue plans?"

„Nice to see you too... And it seems like you found yourself!" He giggled and held a laugh in. „Litterally..." - „This is not funny." - „Come oooooon! Be a little less close minded!" - „Did you forget we're in a horrifying creatures mind?"

He could have went on like this for ages, so I had to seperate them somehow. „Ok guys, enough talking! How do we get out?"

„Better question: How did you even get in?" Lucy didn't hesitate to give an answer: „We dropped down from the cave! It's right above us!" I suddenly had hope. „So we don't actually have to couple up these stubborn versions of us?"

„Hey! We're right behind you!" Oh yeah. Totally forgot about that... „Well, I guess if we can fly up, we're safe?" - „Good thinking Bolt, but I only have a bouncer, not a jet in my multicoat! Only a hoverengine, but that won't get us even half way up there!"

„So we either need a miracle, or a certain cat and dog to cooperate." We all stared at the fake Bolt and Mittens. „No!", they both yelled at the same time. Down to the miracle.

Zeta's P.O.V.

I couldn't stand this anymore. Our mission was cancelled due to unknown reasons and now we had to look at a dead screen showing nothing but statics. While Rhino tried figuring out a way of helping, Allan was sobbing in the corner.

„H- how could I lose ALL of them? They w- were all right there a minute ag- ago, and now they're gone!" I wasn't going to comfort him. That's a thing he had to go through, all I could do would have made it worse.

„Hey Al, do you have another thingy that I can go in through? Like a helmet, or a bed with sensors?" The border collie lifted his head up and looked at me. Suddenly he jumped. „Y- yes! I have a full body suit for fast entry! The computer might handle you!"

He ran outside. Meanwhile Rhino came over to me. „Are you sure you want to do this?" - „I guess we don't really have a choice. Yes I am." - „Can I come with you?" - „No. It's normally not my job to ruin the fun for others, but this time you have to stay out."

„Aw... Ok. But don't get lost." - „I'll try buddy." Allan shot around the corner yelling: „I GOT IT!" When he arrived at the control panel, he plugged a few wires inside, then told me to wear the suit. It wasn't really my shape, more like... for humans, but I managed to get all electrodes attached to my fur.

„Zeta, take this thing." He handed me a backpack, simmilar to Mauser's mutlicoat. „Mauser and Lucy jumped in a hole, that's the last thing I remember from them. This is a jetpack. Find them and fly them back to the surface!"

I nodded. „This is it then. Get me in Allan, I won't disapoint you." He started mashing some buttons before my everything went black in front of my eyes.

Bolt's P.O.V.

„Why don't you go to her and just tell her?", I asked my look-alike when we got into the other room again. „Because it's not true!" - „We were at this point! You have to tell her in order for us to get out!"

„But she doesn't love me! How am I supposed to live on, how are WE supposed to live on knowing that it won't work?" Something had to happen. But before I could think of another way to get him on my side, we heared something landing on the roof.

I went upstairs, and when I got there, I was shocked. „Zeta? I thought you couldn't join us!" - „No time to talk, I'm here to get you up!" Oh thank god. Lucy stormed over to the white golden retriever and hugged him.

„I knew you would come, I just knew it!" I didn't have to look at Mauser, I knew what he must have been thinking. „Hold on, I have a jetpack! One at a time!" Two jets popped out of his backpack, and he flew up with the border collie in his arms.

I went back down to say goodbye to my dream me and the other Mittens. „Welp, bye then, I hope that you'll live on after we get out, and I hope that you get together with her, even though you might not feel like it now!"

I saw his face. He was fighting himself. Zeta took one after another back up to a tunnel, and when it was my turn, I noticed that the truck was standing still, but everything around it moved, making it look like the truck was driving.

Maybe they wouldn't live on after the simulation, maybe they were doomed to not find love in each other. I however was just happy that we were outside of that nightmare. Well, we were still inside, but outside of the heartbreaking stuff.

But that could only mean one thing: „So, if Mittens' and my biggest fear was losing each other, and Lucy is afraid of worms, we have three out of five scenarios over!" For a moment everyone was happy, but then we heared Allan say: _„That also means that two things are still open."_

„Good to hear from you Allan. You're right. We still have a long way to go, the code has to be here!", Mauser explained. Not with me though. „Nope. I'm not going any further than this!" - „B- but Bolt! We're so close!"

„Didn't you just say we still have a long way to go?" - „Well, yes, but we can't just stop here now!" Normall I was a patient dog, but after something like what I just experienced, I was on the edge of anger. Mittens however knew a way of cooling me down.

„Come on Boltie... We'll just do this and then he has to leave us alone.", she said, while hugging me. I went from mild annoyed to blushily happy. I have no idea how she always gets me like that...

„Ok. We're helping you out, but once this is over, you won't even try to come near our house in the future!" - „Deal! Which direction should we go now Allan?"

„ _Well, you came from behind you, so let's go further this way."_ \- „Alright. Team, we're on it!" I didn't like the use of the word 'team' here. But Mauser didn't actually move. He looked down the tunnel. When I followed his gaze, I saw the border collie and golden retriever next to each other, hugging. _That's going to be interesting._

 **First off, sorry for not uploading in such a long while! I'm trying to write more, but there are a lot of other things I have to do. Thank's for being patient, aspecially Advina who still reviews every chapter I make.**


	11. Storms? Really?

Bolt's P.O.V.

„Let's hope that this is the real way to the code, because I am not going to waste another hour of walking around in here!", Zeta said, obviously a bit annoyed. Understandable, we've been roaming for a very long time now.

„ _Don't worry, the simulation doesn't have much more space, so the grid is narrowed down. You should b- be coming closer with every meter that you explore!"_

As we went on, a noise was getting stronger and louder. It was like a stream or a river at first, but as it was intensifying, started sounding like a storm. Mauser was getting seemingly more stressed. But then something caught my eyes.

„Is... is that a light at the end of the tunnel?" - „What? Don't tell me you're dying!" - „Of course not, look!" I pointed towards it. Suddenly Mittens was excited. „You're right! That could be an exit!" Zeta however wasn't that impressed.

„We shouldn't just run there. There are two options here: One, we are supposed to hurry up and completely miss the code, or two, this is another fear of someone."

Turned out Zeta was right with his thesis. When we arrived at the opening, we were greeted by one hell of a storm. I had to shout in order for everyone to understand me. „So, this is the only way, it's open, but a bit windy!"

„A bit windy?" - „Well, not just a bit. It's our only hope though!" But then the boxer surpised us by yelling: „NOPE! I am not going through there!" After a split second I realized: That was Mausers fear.

„Storms? Really? I expected something a bit more... terrifying!" - „Sh- sh- shut up! You know NOTHING!" Now we were getting into the harsh zone.

„Hey, it's ok, we're all afraid of little things from time to-" - „LITTLE THINGS?" I looked over to Mittens. My gaze met hers. I was hoping that she knew how to calm him down, but her eyes were filled with the same helplessness.

„You don't know me! You have no idea what I see in this storm!" I had an idea. „Don't you have that grappling hook? You know, the thing you shot at the train the day that you forced us to jump on one?"

„I have one. How am I supposed to go forwards with it? It sticks to the ground! I would have to remove it to proceed!" True that... „Hey Cap, I never knew you were afraid of wind! How did you manage to pull through Delta Zulu 5?"

„The truth is... I didn't." Lucy, Zeta and Allan all took a shocked breath. Meanwhile Mittens and me just kinda awkwardly stared at them not knowing what was happening. „Y- you didn't? But I thought you were at DZ5! You told us everything about your part in the team! You led them through the-"

„NO I DIDN'T! I STAYED IN THE SHIP LIKE THE COWARD THAT I AM!" After a short silence Lucy tried calming Mauser down. „Hey, it's ok! We're all-" - „Afraid of some little things, I know! But not only can't I make it even close to the exit without getting a panic attack, I also lied to you for years!"

„B- but that's understandable! You thought we might think you're not as brave as you want us to think!" I still had no idea what was going on. „Uhm... Guys? What are you talking about?"

Zeta looked at the boxer, then at me. „I'll try to explain it to you. A few years ago-" Mauser sighed and interrupted the golden retriever. „It's ok Zedd. If I can confess to you, I should be able to tell them myself."

Zeta nodded and let Mauser talk. „See, a few years ago there was an operation on a planet in system 8S32. Specifically planet 3SA, standing for the third planet ascended from the system's sun. This planet was, and is, known for its frequent atmospheric changes, which often lead to lightning all over the globe, rain with waterdrops as big as small puddles and most of all: Air speeds of 12 on the wind scale."

Mittens was impressed. I can't say that I wasn't. „B- but that's a-" - „A hurricane, yes." - „Well then it's completely normal that you are afraid of storms!" - „No! I mean, yes! But it actually came way earlier! When I heared that I had to lead our riot team towards bigger cities that had been taken over by an unknown rebellion, my entire blood circulation froze. But ExoSkull was busy doing other stuff, and I didn't want to disappoint him!

After the riot squad was assembled and on the ship, we were off to what I thought was going to be my end. When we landed, the weather was going crazy. Not even the soundproof titanigum sheets that were used to protect our ears from the engine could help against the outside noises!

This operation had the name 'Delta Zulu 5'. My only mission was to get the riot teams to the cities. I had one job. I only had to take them to a nearby town. Only this. I was heavily armored. One job... and I didn't even make it out of the ship. I stayed inside and nearly cried for two hours over how I let down EVERYONE who put their trust on me!"

I couldn't help but feel bad for him. Suddenly the worms and the heartbreak-truck weren't so bad after all! He was terrified. The bravest dog I have ever met in my entire life was now sitting in front of me, with tears in his eyes and having a mental breakdown!

And I also couldn't believe what I said next: „Hey buddy, we're a team, right? We're here for you, you can trust us! We'll help you overcome this passage on our way, just try it!" He somehow lightened up. Apperantly hearing that from me meant a lot to him.

„Thank you. I'll try." - „That's the spirit!" But there was still something open to me: „Wait, why are you even afraid of storms in the first place?" You could see the exact moment his mood changed form 'semi ok' to 'totally wrecked'.

„I... I really don't want to talk about it..." - „It's ok man, sorry for digging so deep. We should go now."

As we got up to the end of the tunnel I could already feel the stream of air. „We're here for you. I am going to make the first step.", Zeta explained. Without any signs of regret he stuck his head out of the cave.

His fur started going crazy and everything was leaning to the right. After seemingly enjoying it for a minute he went back inside. „Not as bad as I thought it would be! I scouted the area out a bit, there is a small bridge over a huge dropoff right outside! Pretty wobbly, but overall stable!"

The boxer nodded and got closer to the exit. But after moving his paw out by just a centimeter he gave up and hid behind the wall. „Nope! Not with me!" - „Ok then! Lucy, Bolt, Mittens, you're coming with me! I am from now on the leader of this search!"

„What?!" - „Cap, if you don't want to do this, it's ok! But we will go on and finish the job!" Mauser thought for a second. „You know what? NO! I WILL go out there! And I WILL get it done! It's time to face the storm!"

Mittens went on my back and held onto me, otherwise she would have been blown away. Everyone else was heavy enough though, so we made our approach. The bridge was close, and even I had some trust issues with its stability. But we had to go. No turning back now. Litterally, the exit closed right after everyone was outside.

 **Now, I don't have much to add here, except for one question: What did YOU think was Mauers fear? That was one of my goto points for the script by the way, one of the few things that were clear to the story from the beginning on. Many, MANY things you already read came to my mind as the story progressed. Thanks for reading, goodbye und schönen Abend noch!**


	12. Something of interest

The group of five was nearing the bridge. A huge drop, that was for sure, and the storm didn't help at all. Now Zeta began to shake. Nothing big, but quite noticably. „Hey man, you ok?" The white golden retriever looked at me and nodded.

„Yep, I'm good, but the alpmare knows what it's doing!" Uh oh... „Are you, by any chance..." - „Afraid of heights? Yes. Yes indeed I am. But ya know what? I frankly don't care." - „Y- you don't?"

„Nope! I haven't felt that alive in years!" Impressed by that answer, Lucy snug her head in his fur and said: „Promise you'll not freak out, ok? I nee- we need you here!" Her cheeks started shining a bit red after almost leaking unwanted information.

„Nah, as I said, I'm totally fine with this! I mean, not totally, but you get the point!" They were now at the first plank. „Oh well, now or never, I guess..." Zeta was the first to step on the wobbling construct of old rotten wood, old rusty iron nails and old half destroyed rope.

„Is it stable?", Bolt shouted over to him. „Not really! But the storm isn't blowing in a frequency, it's constantly pushing it to the side! Should hold up pretty well!" In the middle of his walk to the other side however, Zeta discovered something.

„Guys! GUYS! I think I found the code!" Suddenly they were all excited. „What does it say?", Mittens yelled at him. „I can't read it! But that's definately some chemistry stuff right there! Allan, do you see this?"

„ _Sorry, outside here is full of interceptions in my visuals! I can hear you though! Is the formular written on something you can move?"_ The white golden retriever tried getting a better look at it. „It's printed on a stone! A flat medium rock!"

„ _Can you move it inside the cave?"_ \- „If there is another cave on the other side of this bridge, yes! But I need help! There is a big gap between me and the code!" Time for Mauser to shine! He bravely walked up to the front of the construct aaand... on second thought, not the time for Mauser to shine.

Bolt however knew how to help! „I'll do it, hang in there!" He ran down the bridge, even though it shook like crazy, still with Mittens on his back. She was part of his plan. „Ok Mitts, you grab the rope here, I'll hold Zeta, and Zeta will jump on the platform!"

„How am I supposed to hold you both up?" Valid question. „Uuuuuhm... Alright! New plan! Zeta will hold me, I'll hang down and swing you over, and YOU get the rock!" - „Sounds fair, I guess!"

„ _WHAT? ARE YOU C- CRAZY?"_ \- „Al, you might not see this, but the wind is blowing in the direction of the platform! The second ANYTHING leaves the ground it gets pushed over there! We don't have to do anything at all!"

Nothing as a reply. „Good, Bolt, Mittens, get ready!" The golden retriever grabbed the rope and a wooden plank and held his right hind leg to Bolt. „I'll trust you! If you let go, it's your problem!" „I'm gonna try."

He took his paw and jumped off. Zeta let out a short sqeal of surprise, but held on strong. As expected, Bolt was immidiately thrown back towards the platform. Meanwhile Mittens, who held onto a rope herself, started climbing down the living bridge extention.

As she arrived on the pillar of stone, the black cat reached out for the flat rock, and was baffled to see an actual formular written on it. „I- almost- got it!" Finally her grip tightened around the object. It was lighter than expected!

And as she picked it up it acted as a sail, making her fly in away from the platform. „MITTENS!", Bolt yelled, instandly letting go of Zeta's leg and jumping after his cat. „BOLT!", Zeta yelled, this time letting go of the bridge and jumping after his newly found companion.

They were now hanging on a little stick growing out of the stone pillar. „ZETA!", the others yelled at the same time, and, you get the idea, jumping after their old friend. Well, at least Lucy did, Mauser stopped, again, at the beginning of the bridge.

But she miscalculated what she was doing, and flew past them, only grabbing onto Bolt's arm, where Mittens was already hanging. They were almost horizontally leaning away from the pillar, when Zeta had an idea.

„GUYS! THIS MIGHT GET HOT!" He turned on his jetpack. It kinda worked! The were slowly going towards the bridge, but at the same time, if he didn't have the twig in his paw anymore, they would be aimlessly whirling into their doom. Only one last possible chance:

„MAUSER!" That's exactly what he didn't want to hear. But suddenly everything started to slow down. His full adrenaline kick kicked in. His biggest fear was not about to be beaten. It was about to be demolished!

He sprinted down the wobbling wooden construct, and held out his paw to his old friend. Zeta knew he could trust him. There was no time to think. His, and everyone else's life was hanging on his ability to catch Mauser.

Now or never. The answer was 'now'. Not even a second after they held each other, Mauser was starting to get pulled down too. But he had his multicoat! The same speed booster that helped him and Lucy getting away from the worms now helped Zeta's jetpack bringing them in.

The whole crew crossed the rest of the bridge with ease, nothing could beat what they had just survived. And to their surprise, there was another cave entrance right where the bridge ended!

Back inside, everyone first had to overcome the shock and cool down. After congratulating each other for getting past this hurdle, the question that had to be asked was asked: _„Do you still have the code?"_

Everyone stared at Mittens. „I... I dropped it..."

 **Now here I am with two options to continue this. I'm not gonna spoil any of those, but I know where to go with both. Thank's for reading, I'm in a lot of stress right now, again, but hey, at least I got my drivers licence now! (Semi licence) My days in this week go from 7:00 to 16:30, so don't expect too much in that time, but afterwards I'll get right back into it! Goodbye und schönen Abend noch!**


	13. Runaway cat

Bolt's P.O.V.

That was a major drawback. For a while, everyone was just silent. We were looking at the walls or the floor, not knowing how the others thought of the situation. Were they angry? Sad? Maybe they would understand... I sure did understand, I wasn't mad or dissappointed!

After a few seconds I heared a silent sqeak. When I turned around, I realized that it was Mittens. What I saw completely threw me over: The world's bravest, most unbreakable cat was now broken. Almost crying.

With tears in her eyes and a few sqeaks of wheeping, she turned away from us, towards the upcoming tunnel. And then she ran.

Mittens' P.O.V.

I couldn't. I just couldn't look them in the eyes again. I messed it up so bad, all that I had to do was hold on to a piece of stone! Bolt and the others risked their lifes, two of them afraid of what was outside had tested themselves, they finally overcame themselves just for me to ruin it!

I didn't stop running. Even when I heared Bolt calling my name. I knew that he would run for me. He would try to find and comfort me. I knew that he would understand. His heart was too good not to.

But everyone else... I couldn't return, and at this point, I didn't want to see anyone, or be seen by anyone. Not even my Bolt.

Bolt's P.O.V.

„MITTENS!" I knew from the beginning that just shouting her name wasn't going to bring her back. I had to go. „Guys, you stay here and rest, I'll find her!" The white golden retriever stood up and looked me in the eyes.

„I'm coming with you. This tunnel is dangerous. We're here to help." Before the other two could even think about following me, I said: „No. I know her. She doesn't want anybody to be with her right now. The more the worse. Allan, you stay here with your camera too, ok? Can I trust you on this?"

„ _O- Ok, sure, but if you find her, tell her that this isn't half as bad as it seems. I'm already extracting files!"_ \- „Whatever that means, yes, I'll tell her. See you later guys!"

I sprinted off into the tunnel that my cat took. Her paws already printed in the way to go in the dust, it was just a matter of speed now. After a sharp turn right, I noticed something in the wall while running: A perfectly circular hole.

„Oh god!", I yelled to myself, in the horrorful realization that this was where a worm must have shot out. „MITTENS!" Still, even though it had no point, she should know that this wasn't her end. After what Allan told me, he was extracting something. This could only be the code.

Another question that I had was, if we died in here, would we die in real life? I should have asked that earlier, maybe someone already told me, I completely forgot. And I wasn't going to test it, that's for sure.

-Meanwhile at the other's location-

„What do you mean? What are you extracting?" - _„Ok, so in order for you to know w- what I'm doing, you need to know how this emulation works!"_ \- „Could you at least make it short and for dogs like me understandable?"

„ _Uhm... sure. Ok sister, open up your ears, you'll like this! This entire creature's mind is virtualized onto a three petabyte memory cell, accessable by a one terrabyte RAM cell and a 300 gigabyte cache system, all in the rooms next to us."_ \- „No idea what you're talking about."

„ _Let's just say it's a big and fast memory. Whatever you do has place in the cache for around five minutes before it makes space for something else. I managed to transport the bit when you were outside to the RAM, where it's transportable to either the memory or the cache again, so-"_

„Just get to your point already!" - _„S- sorry... I have the outside episode on the master memory, so I can exctract the exact part of when Zeta was looking at the stone and decode it. Then I do the same thing with the part when Mittens looked at it, to make sure that it's identical and then we should have the formular!"_

Mauser lifted up his head and asked: „But couldn't we have done that from the beginning on?" - _„Nope. This is just a failsafe, and it might not even work. Having clear sight to the code would have been much more valuable, but I guess this works too."_

Mittens' P.O.V.

I wiped another tear from my eye as I was sobbing in a corner. I let them down. I let them all down. That's the only thing I could think of. I haven't cried in years. Maybe had soggy eyes once, but I not real crying. I felt weak.

Suddenly there was a noise from where I came from, growing stronger and lounder as time went on. „Go away Bolt. You're not helping me right now..." Saying this hurt even more, but I needed some time alone.

The noise however was still coming closer. Just as I turned around to tell my dog off one more time, the source of the sound came visible. And I screamed.

Bolt's P.O.V.

Yep. She met the worm. Alone and in an emotionally unstable phase. But I already ran as fast as I could! The slithering path of the worm was way easier to follow though, and I came closer and closer to fresher and fresher tracks. I was outrunning it.

One last turn right and... there it was. Not the biggest one yet, but it had a respectable size. „HEY! COME HERE YOU MONSTER!" The creature turned around. Now I was its prey. Maybe I should have thought of a plan first, because I was equally unarmed as Mittens.

No time to think. Its circular mouth opened wide, revealing teeth that spread in every direction possible, all while making a horrifying sound that was a mixture of a car braking too fast and boiling water.

It's head fell down and it started winding its way towards me. Suddenly I knew what to do. At the last second, not even two meters before the worm could get me, I jumped aside. I didn't see anything, but the sound of bones and teeth breaking on stone gave me a good idea of what happened.

My plan seemed to work. The creature screeched in pain and threw itself at me. I dodged its attack, but was hit by a stone in the leg. The same leg that was shot on maximus. I was immidiately set back to the scene in which Five pulled out his capsule and tried to fix my bone, and all I wanted at this point was Mittens holding me again.

The worm crashed against another wall, this time not as heavy as the first one, but still, it sounded like it was in pain. „JUST END IT RIGHT HERE!", I screamed. I tried getting up, but my leg refused.

I stared at the worm, but it wasn't looking at me back, it glared to my cat. Mittens had gotten up and tried to make the worm agressive at her. It worked. Using the same tactic that I had, she threw herself away from the attacker in the last second.

This time, the worm didn't scream. It didn't move. It was dead. When my leg finally worked again, I got up and ran over to Mittens. She was in a corner again. „Mittens! Are you ok? Did the worm hurt you?"

No answer. I tried looking her in the eyes, but she turned away from me. She was crying. „Hey... it's ok, Allan said he's exctracting something, I'm sure the code is safe! We're all good, nobody's hurt..." - „I let you all down..."

I sighed. „Come on... You didn't let us down! In fact, without you we couldn't have even made it this far!" No response. I had to do something. „Mitts... nobody's mad at you, we're not hurt!" - „I... I'm sorry Bolt..."

„You don't have-" I realized that this had no point. „Ok. You said sorry. It's ok now. It was never not ok, but it's even more ok now, ok?" She chuckled. I did it. I got her back. She turned around and semi smiled at me, wiped a tear away and said: „Ok.", before kissing me. Now we just had to get back. If Allan could save the code, our mission would be over and we could finally go home and just sleep.

 **I'm back! Also, I'm so sorry for not writing in the last days, but I was full with exams and other things, but I'll got back to writing. I'm gonna try to be a bit more productive with this story now, thank's for reading, aspecially you Advina, you've been helping me out a lot with the story, just the motivation and stuff! Also, Wooling Mations is always there too. Thank's you too man! Goodbye und schönen Abend noch!**


	14. Love is a complicated business

Mittens' P.O.V.

„Are you sure they're not mad at me?", I asked quietly. „Of course! Hey, if Allan really has the stuff we need, we're good to go!" - „Thank's Bolt..." I stopped and hugged my dog. „I'm here for you. And if somebody even remotely mentions it, I'll shut them up myself." - „I love you..." He smiled and hugged back. „I love you too Mitts..."

When we got to the others, I was still a bit nervous, but that was taken away immidiately by Lucy who came storming towards me. „Mittens! You won't believe it! Allan said he can get the formular from the cage or whatever it's called!"

„ _It's cache, Lucy..."_ \- „Ok, sure, but hey! We're done! We can come out now!" - _„Well, in a minute, the extraction still takes time, and I don't want to lose anything by using all the computer power to get you out."_

„Wow... thank's Al...", Zeta mocked with his deep voice. „So a string of code is more valuable than we are?" - _„It's the reason why you're in there!"_ \- „Alright. But get it done quickly!" - _„Already decoding!"_

Bolt layed his arm around me and whispered: „See? Everything's fine!" I nodded and shook the last bit of guilt out of my head. It was over now. Only the part when we were going to be transported outside.

„ _Ok, Zeta's data is decoded! I'm looking through the formular right now, and it's not even that complicated! I can already make out two isotopes and three other common chemicals!"_ \- „Oh really?", Mauser asked sarcasticly.

„ _Yep! Metanol, Ethanol and Hydrogen!"_ \- „Uhm... And in normal language?" - _„I can't believe it... One of the things water is made of, drinkable alcohol and not drinkable alcohol. I'm just not sure how that's going to work, aren't they going to neutralize each other?"_

„You're asking the wrong dogs here Al... Talk to the doc about that or something!" A short silence from behind the microphone. Then the border collie sighed and quickly said: _„Alright, I'm out and about now, Mittens' data is a bit harder to crack."_

I looked up to the camera, which was just a little sphere with a hole in it. „How's that?" - _„You're not opening up to others, are you?"_ \- „N- no, why? Is that important?" - _„Kinda. Your mind is hard to look into in real life, so the encryption of your brain's data is more complex."_

Another short silence. _„Oh wow..."_ \- „What's it this time?" - _„Nothing, nothing, but uhm... the computer just doesn't want to step behind your mind... It takes even longer than my memories!"_

Was I that closed towards others? Not even a giant super computer could figure me out? I have to say, I was quite a bit impressed with myself! _„This could take a few... hours."_ The whole crew's only reaction was a surprised: „WHAT?"

A few hours was pretty long! The nervosity came back. My closed up mind was keeping us all from escaping from this hell hole! Bolt must have read my thoughts though. He immidiately placed his paw on my shoulder and pulled me towards him as if he wanted to protect me.

I was even more impressed with Bolt than I was about myself. Even though a computer had to solve my brain for hours, my dog could understand me instandly. This adventure was bringing us together more than I thought it would, and we were already really close! Maybe one day I'll let myself in on another mission with the Skulls. Highly unlikely though, after what was happening here.

„ _It's fine, I could cancel the decryption at any time! Just tell me if you want out now!"_ We were all looking at each other. „Uhm... how long are we talking right now?" - _„Two to three hours."_ \- „Out." - „Out." - „Out now." - „Cancel it." - „Time to go."

„ _That was quick... Ok, keep it cool, I'm stopping the decryption. I already have what I need!"_ A few seconds of relief, then: _„Mauser, you're first!"_ \- „Pull me out, Al!"

Not even five seconds later the boxer's body started glowing, and slowly vaporizing. „See you on the other side!" - „Bye then!" - „Try not to get eaten on the way!"

When his head, the last part, was gone, I noticed Lucy staring at Zeta. That's gonna be fun. _„Bolt, you're up!"_ \- „On my merry way then!" - „See you outside." - „You'll be fine!" He too was getting dissolved into atoms. _„Zett, get ready!"_

He chuckled. „I'm gonna leave you girls alone! Try not to redecorate the place with pink cussions!" Lucy smiled back and winked at him, before turning away with a bit of redness on her face. Yep. She got hit.

As the last bit of Zeta was atomized, I looked her straight into the eyes and asked the inevitable: „You like him, don't you?" Her face went insta-tomato. „That's none of your business!" - „Hey, I already have Bolt, you don't need to see me as a rival!"

She sighed. „I guess you're right... Yes. Yes, the answer is yes, I totally have a crush on him... Could you please help me?" It warmed my heart to see another one find love. Or at least the tricky part before that. „Admitting it to yourself is the first step in the right direction. Admitting it to someone else is the second. And admitting it to HIM is the last."

The border collie looked confused. „That's... surprisingly accurate!" - „Yep. To be honest, it was Rhino who told me that, that's the way it works in 'the magic box', as he calls the TV!" - „Wow, I'm just... you're right! So I am almost at the last step!"

„Not quite. There aren't just three steps. Because the way that scripted TV works isn't the same as reality. Try gaining his attention, be around him more often, make it clear to him that you want something from him! The twist: Make HIM want you more than you want him!"

„That doesn't seem like it could-" But she was cut off by a glowing on her legs. „Oh ok, I guess we're not going to finish that conversation..." - „Just watch yourself, the gap between part 2 and the last one is big!"

And so she got transported outside too. Funny. Now I was the one giving advice to somebody... And about Mauser... I knew that I couldn't be on both sides, so I was on my own. And my own side told me to see what would happen.

Bolt's P.O.V.

We were back in the white void that we came through at the start. As soon as I Zeta arrived, Mauser was being put back into his body. I made sure that he couldn't hear me anymore and turned to the white golden retriever.

„Alright, are you up for a bit of realtalk?" - „Hm? Oh, uhm... sure, yep. Go on, what's burnin on ya?" - „How do you think about Lucy?" He chuckled. „Well, I'd say she's pretty cool, nothing wrong about her, don'tcha think?"

„I can't really tell, but the first impression was ok! But, how do you think about YOU and her?" - „Wha? Oh, you mean as a couple?" I nodded. „Yeah, meh, surely, I like her, but I think Mauser had his eyes on her a lot longer than I had. I'm not going to get between them."

Now Zeta was dissolving. „Yep, that's gotta be enough realtalk for now, I guess! See ya!" The second that he was completely gone, Lucy showed up. As much as I wanted out, I also wanted to talk to Mittens for a bit alone, so I tried getting Allan's attention.

„Allan? Can you hear me?" A few seconds passed. _„Yes I can, what's the matter?"_ \- „Could you take Lucy out before me? I'd like a few minutes alone with Mittens, nothing much, just to talk." - _„Shouldn't be a problem!"_

And immidiately, Lucy's body lit up in a green light, exactly when Mittens showed up. Pretty good timing. We made sure that we were alone, and fronted her with the news. „So, I don't know if you noticed, but we have a little love problem here."

„Yep. Already got behind it. Lucy is focused on Zeta, Mauser on Lucy, and Zeta..." - „He just told me that he leaves her to Mauser." - „That's going to be interesting." - „You bet... Who should we help?"

„Nobody." - „Nobody?" - „Nobody. Let's just let this play out." Seemed like an option. „Ok, I'll trust you on this." - „Hey Bolt, on another note, I never thought that I would say that, but I'm for once really looking forward to seeing Rhino again!"

That caught me off guard. She often wasn't getting along with him too well and now she's happy about seeing him? Things must have changed inside here! „But only because his cheery attitude is going to help me lighten up again. Hopefully."

I didn't have any doubt in that at all. And to be honest, I was really excited about seeing everyone again. It was about time to get out.

 **Well, from now on this should be a piece of cake, right? Anyways, thank's for reading, see you soon! Goodbye und schönen Abend noch!**


	15. The lab

After their successful mission, everyone was spiked with relief and sore limbs. They all congratulated each other to not dying, which ulitmately lead to another question: „Hey Allan, uhm... If we, let's say..."

„Died in there?" The border colllies voice sounded completely different, now that he wasn't hidden behind a microphone anymore. „Well Bolt, let me answer your question right away: Nothing. Nothing would have happened, I had a backup of your minds ready just in case.

As for Mittens though... since I lost her before I could even think about that backup, if you would have died, you would have ACTUALLY died." The cat had to shake that thought off first. „Wow... Good thing I didn't die..."

„Anyways, why don't we go over to my personal lab and start developing the CRG?" - „What's that now?" - „The cellular rearangement gun. I already have it built up, but I needed the code for the chemical!"

Nobody had anything against that idea, and as long as they could sit or lay down for a few minutes, any idea would've been great.

Bolt's P.O.V.

Finally that stench was gone. No more alpmare, no more virtual me, no more worms. Just us and the normal life. „Nice to see you again Rhino!", Mittens said happily, to the surprise of the little hamster.

„Are you sure that the creature didn't implant something in your head?" - „One hundret percent sure. I'm just happy to see anything again, not only dark tunnels filled with worms!"

We passed a few doors, straight back to the main room with that gas plant inside. From there we took a little elevator up to the other labs, and followed a pipeline to an oddly minimalistic corridor with only one door.

„That's my laboratory. Now, I'll apologize in advance for the mess that I've been making inside, but... whatever you do... j- just don't touch anything." He held his eye in front of a scanner. The door beeped and opened up right away.

We were now standing inside a wide open area with appliances for every need around the whole place. „Uhm... that's a microwave, isn't it?", Rhino pointed at a device that actually did look like a microwave.

„Nope, that's a molecular disruption chamber. Don't go inside!" - „And that?" The brown hamster shot over to a round plate with glas tubes reaching out. „A centrifuge." - „This?" - „Boiler." - „These things?" - „Don't touch that! Those are deadly chemicals!" Rhino immidiately stopped and ran back to us.

The lab wasn't even that messy, but a few things were laying on the floor. One of them was... a bunny plushy? „Hey Allan?" - „Yes Bolt?" - „What do you use that for?" He turned around and looked at what I was pointing at.

His pupils shrinked inside his eyes and you could see every bit of color draining from his face. „GET AWAY FROM THAT!" I jumped back. „Why? Is this some sort of time bomb?" - „W- what? N- no! That's Snuffles! You're not actually supposed to know th- that I have him in the first place!"

„Snuffles? You mean like a deadly chemical that can be inhaled?" - „Of course not!" He picked the bunny and went over to his main desk where he put it down. „So he's just a toy?" Allan froze. „J- just... a toy? Did you really just say that Snuffles is JUST A TOY?"

Uh oh... „No, no, I just thought that if it wasn't some sort of crazy science thingy then-" - „He's not worth anything? Well you're wrong! He means EVERYTHING to me!" The border collie turned his back to me and looked at his plushy while mumbling: „Yeah, yeah, _just a toy_! I'll show them!"

„Hey, sorry if I hurt your feelings there, I had no idea how much-" - „It's ok. I'm just a bit tired... Haven't slept in a couple of days..." - „Really? What have you been doing all that time?" - „Reading, building, thinking about various paradoxes to help me sleep but never came to a solution..."

„Isn't that what paradoxes are for?" - „Yes, surely, but I like trying things that seem impossible! I've also been thinking about a lot of dilemma situations, like the robot stop button one!" - „Never heared of that..."

„Well, it's not really a dilemma but-" That's where his sister interrupted him. „Ok Al, you're good, we get it, but could you work on your substance so that we can go to sleep now please?" Allan's head sacked down. „Yes... of course. As always, I'm talking too much..."

He hesitated for a few seconds, then proceeded to go over to the chemicals that he warned Rhino about. „Alright, I suggest you go to sleep or something, you can have my bed and the floor or something... I should have a mattress somewhere too, get cozy..."

He was pretty devastated. Something was definately wrong with him, but most likely only his sleeping problem. But I couldn't complain about the opportunity to lay down. Allan lead us over to the door and let us in. It wasn't very big, but enough space for everyone.

After picking a spot to sleep, Mittens put her head on my chest and whispered: „We did it..." I hugged her and placed my chin on her head. „Yes we did." - „Do you think we'll ever do something with the Skulls again?"

I didn't have to think about that. „Nope. Not after what this turned into." - „I guess you're right... Goodnight, Bolt." - „Goodnight..."

Rhino's P.O.V.

I was woken up by a strange sound. I looked at the clock that was over the door. 2:31 in the morning. That was propably not earth time, but it felt like it was that early. Then there was this sound again!

A hauntingly sad melody coming from the other room. There was a little hole in the wall, just big enough for me to crawl through. I forced myself to stand up and investigate. When I stuck my face through the gap, I noticed that the lights in the room were still on.

Suddenly something dark moved. I shrieked back, but it turned out it was just a shadow. The shadow of a dog, to be more accurate. Not thinking about it, I just climbed my way onto a table, and realized that the lab looked completely different now!

Then there was this melody again. A song, which had lyrics that I couldn't understand. And the singer was... Allan? His voice was so deep all over sudden and filled with pain! I stood there and listened to him for a bit longer, until he stopped singing.

I took the moment and clapped. The border collie screamed and jumped straight into the air. „Who's there?", he asked, silently, trying not to wake the others up. „It's me, Rhino!" - „W- where are you?" - „Right here on the table!"

Allan looked around and finally spotted me. „Ok, h- how much did you hear?" - „A lot actually! You have a beautiful singing voice, that's for sure!" - „W- wow, uhm, thank's Rhino..." - „What language even was that?"

„Carorian. It's from the planet 8B10. The song's called: 'Moenie vertaal'. This song's name doesn't have a translation to our language, but its text is pretty deep. Again, I can't translate it to your language. Carorian is a tounge that you can only understand if you studied it for a long time."

„And what are you working on this late?" - „I need to think about how I want to set up the substance. I somehow have to mix the uranium isotope U235 with chlorine, bromine and several alcoholic solutions in the right matter. This is a deadly combination, aspeciall the bromine and uranium, and..."

Suddenly he stopped talking. „I'm boring, I know, sorry for that..." I couldn't believe it! He thought he was boring! „Of course you're not! This is the most interesting thing I've ever heared! You seem to know what you're doing!"

„So you're ok with me plastering you with scientific statements and facts?" - „I've always been fascinated by science! The explosions, the chemicals, the experiments and explosions after the experiments!"

And then I saw Allan smile for the first time since I've gotten to know him. „If that's like that, be my guest, because if you want explosions, this is where you'll get them!" His enthusiasm sparked over to me.

„Show me ALL of the explosions!" - „You'll get as many as you want!" - „FIRE UP YOUR LAB!" - „IT'S ALREADY ON FIRE!" - „SCIENCE!" - „SCIENCE!" - _„SILENCE!"_ , came Lucy's voice from the other side of the door. „Oh right..." Allan's smile was now a complete, toothy grin. Just how I remembered it from the movies...

 **Big thank's to all my readers and reviewers, aspecially Advina and WoolingMations for being there since the beginning of this story! You'll hear from me again! Goodbye und schönen Abend noch!**


	16. A change in attitude

Bolt's P.O.V.

The next day I was ripped out of my sleep by someone screaming, an explosion and a siren. The whole room was instandly awake. „Oh no...", Lucy mumbled. „He took it too far again..." - „What do you mean?"

„I mean, Allan propably made a bio weapon by accident or something! Nothing new, but annoying at times..." The thought of a bio weapon just a few meters away from us wasn't really calming, but again, it was just a guess.

The sweet sound of silence for a second, then two voices screaming 'Science!' together. They were all too familiar: Rhino and Allan. „Should we check after them?", Zeta asked. He was clearly worried about them.

„It's for the best! I'll come with you!" Mauser stood up and walked over to the door. „I think we should just all go and see what they did this time..." Not a bad idea, I had the feeling that we would have to rescue Rhino from there anyways.

And so we got up, went through the door into the lab. But... there was no explosion, nothing seemed to have moved since the last evening, and none of the two were in here! „I guess they went to the secondary testing facility!", Mauser suggested.

„Do you know where that is, Cap?" The boxer nodded. „I've been there a few times with Exo, we were looking at a prototype of the CRG!" - „Well, let's go over there, I need to know if my brother's ok!"

Down the hallway, with the elevator one floor upwards, and now we were standing in front of a heavily armored gate with the text 'Secondary testing facility' on it.

As soon as Mauser opened the door, we were greeted by yet another explosion at the other side of the room, behind a glass panel. Surprisingly, it wasn't even that loud! „Oh hey Rhino, we have some company! Which is good, because I needed you anyways!"

Something wasn't quite right about the border collie. „How's the CRG going?" - „Ready for a test drive! That's why I need you!" Wait... „Oh, you mean to be the first ones to withness something this great too, right?"

„Haha, yeah..." His mimic darkened. „Totally for that." - „So! Where's the test subject?" - „It's closer than you think..." He wasn't talking about- „Because I have it right here!" He pressed a button, and up came an apple from the floor.

„That's my life sample! What did you expect? Every life sample starts off as an apple!" Oh good. „Now watch closely as I turn this apple into a banana only using the magic of the cellular rearangement-" - „Just show us the damn thing already!"

„Wow Lucy...", Allan's mimic darkened again. „I'm your brother so I can tell you this: You're quite annoying at times... But that doesn't matter anymore! So take your seats right here at my conveniently placed chairs right in front of the glass!"

His sudden change in attitude was the thing that scared me the most. I was now watching a scientist making a banana out of an apple. Mittens poked me and gave me a worried look. Apperantly she's been thinking the same.

But I didn't complain. We took place where the seats were, and stared through the window. Allan's and Rhino's platform started moving and was risen into the ceiling. It then slid across a rail system over the testing area and was placed by an arm right inside said area.

A glass dome moved over it, giving it a roof and therefore protection from what was going to happen. _„Ladies and gentlemen!"_ , the border collies voice said through the speakers, _„I hereby present you: The cellular rearangement gun!"_

With the press of a button and a loud siren howling, two steel plates moved to the sides in the ceiling, reviealing a giant device that was now aiming at the floor. Bits of it started spinning, turning and twisting.

A green, shining fluid in a small canister was now being attached to the gun's top. Suddenly the liquid sank down inside the gun until it was only half full anymore. The gun itself started shining in a mixture of blue and green.

Now the apple came into the game. The fruit was now a good meter away from the gun's front. _„This is what everyone has been waiting for! SEE IT WORKING! HA! HAHA!"_ Allan burst out into laughter.

Not the good kind of laughter. The evil, completely crazed kind of laughter. Mittens and I stared in each other's eyes with a kind of horror that I've never experienced in my life ever before. Allan slammed his paw onto the control panel.

Another siren set off. Along the CRG, almost every piece was now spinning, suddenly emmitting green charges towards the front end. The inside was now glowing in a poisonous green.

I had no good feeling. I wanted to go home, more than I ever wanted to go home. Even more than when I ended up in New York. _„GET IT GOING!"_ Another punch to the panel, and the CRG fired.

That was the most insane noise I've ever heared. A mix of electricity, plasma and water shot out of its front, hitting the apple and hulling said fruit in a green glow. Meanwhile Allan's laughter has grown into violent, rapid breaths that didn't sound like a living creature could produce such sounds.

But... when the gun stopped firing, the speakers went silent. On the platform where the apple used to be was now just a pile of ashes. No banana, no tumors on the apple, just ashes. _„I though... I thought I had the correct formular! How is that possible? No... No! NO! NO THIS CAN'T BE TRUE!"_

The border collie had now completely lost his mind. He was punching the glass, throwing papers off of a table, wrecking the table in the process. „I'm getting out of here!", I said in the crowd, grabbed Mittens and jumped up. The others were all too shocked to react properly.

„ _HOW COULD I FAIL? HOW COULD IT FAIL? HOW COULD ANY OF THIS FAIL?"_ \- „Well it did! Calm down, you're just embarrassing yourself..." That was the single worst thing to do at this point.

„ _You know what, sister? You're right! If the apple didn't work, maybe some actual life samples will!"_ Mauser got the idea and jumped up. Zeta was too slow though. An electrical field shot around all seats that we were just on.

The female border collie and the white golden retriever were now stuck to them and couldn't move. _„I AM SICK OF YOU! I AM SO SICK OF EVERYTHING!"_ The glas moved aside and the two were now being transported into the room.

„ALLAN!", we all yelled at the same time. I had no idea where Rhino went. _„Mauser! How did you escape?!"_ The boxer however just turned to Mittens. „Alright, you keep him busy! I know what to do!"

He grabbed me and ran outside. „HEY WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" - „Follow me! There is a way to stop him! We need to get the Exosuit!" And so we ran. I knew this had to go south. I knew it.

Mittens' P.O.V.

So I was stuck together with a crazed scientist and his vaporizing mashine in front of me. „Allan! Don't do it! You'll fix your gun, I believe in you!" - _„Oh, I will! And I will achieve my goal! I will bring him to life! But without those two annoyances!"_

„Allan, I'm sorry! I didn't know that you were this-" - _„SHUT UP! I'M DONE TALKING TO YOU!"_ \- „Hey Al, I don't know what I did, could you please get me off of this seat?", Zeta asked, still with confidence in his voice.

„ _You're right, you don't know. Because nobody knows! Nobody ever knows what they're doing to me when they say that I'm boring, that I have to stop talking! That I'm just a nobody with a dream! I am somebody, and if it's just the guy who's going to evaporate you!"_

„Wow I... I didn't think that I harmed you this much..." - _„BECAUSE YOU DON'T THINK!"_ I had no idea what I got myself into. This had to be a dream! But I couldn't wake up! It's reality... It happened. And something was going to happen.

 **You thought the story was over, didn't you? Well, not quite. Not quite.**


	17. Hidden monsters inside the surpressed

Bolt's P.O.V.

Everything was going way too quick. After Mauser had dragged me out, we ran through the corridor and back inside the gas plant room. We straight up skipped the desinfection part, to the annoyance of the workers there, and headed towards a gate that had 'Authorized Personal only! Unauthorized intruders will be shot!' written above it.

After various safety measures, the door opened up. We were now inside a big, open room with a platform in the middle. „You go up there, I'll activate the Exosuit!" I was filled with concern. „What do I have to do?"

„Stand in the red circle!" Sounded easy enough. As I got up, I noticed a few cables just haning from the ceiling. When Mauser was done doing whatever he was doing, those cables lifted up and started grabbing my limbs, just like when we got transported inside the alpmare.

A helmet lowered down from the roof, and a very deep, computer voice announced: _„Initiating Synchronization."_ I was honestly more afraid of what Allan could do to them than this, so I endured it and stood still as they lifted me into the air.

„This next part might hurt a bit, but don't worry, you're doing great so far!" The arms stung my limbs with little needles, making me twitch in a short moment of pain. The helmet was now on my head, strapped itself around my chin and started humming.

„ _Synching."_ Darkness.

Mittens' P.O.V.

„ _SO SEE HOW I TURN YOU INTO ASHES JUST LIKE THE APPLE!"_ The gun spun up and the other half of the liquid was pumped from the canister. Lucy tried to escape, but Zeta just took it. „Allan, I didn't know how much I hurt you. I'm sorry, but don't you think this is a bit overkill?"

„ _NOTHING! Your words mean nothing to me! I've been pushed, beaten and bullied for most of my life! You have no idea how much I've dreamt of a moment like that, just me, you and the inevitable death of yours!"_

That monsterous laugh again. He was completely crazy. _„I don't think you know that, but for a good time I've actually been an extrovert! I always wanted to be around others, but guess what? They didn't like me, so they started making fun of me! And soon EVERYONE made fun of me!_

 _My hunger for science and knowledge had always been there, but after a while I introverted! I spent most of my days alone in my room studying, researching and building that I didn't mind having no friends!"_

„But WE are your friends! What about Mauser? What about Bolt, Mittens or Rhino?" - _„I could never stand this boxer. Always acting as if he was the best in everything! The shepherd and the cat are collateral damage. The only one I feel sorry for is Rhino._

 _Yesterday he came in my lab and asked me to tell him about science, the stuff that I was doing! For the first time ever I was explaining stuff to someone who could understand me! THAT WAS THE BEST FEELING EVER! And now he has to watch you two die. I'm not going to hurt the collaterals, but you have to be elliminated!"_

Bolt's P.O.V.

„ _-nch finished. Boot complete. Gaining full body control in 3... 2... 1... Full body control enabled."_ I fell down. Not me, but the body I was in. I tried standing up, but was surprised by how differently this thing behaved.

Then it hit me: I was in a human body! I looked down at my paws and realized that they were hands. Metallic hands to be precise. One of them was a gun. „Good, you're in. How does it feel?" - _„Am I human now?"_ , I asked.

My voice was completely different. Metallic and synthetic. „Yes you are. This is the Exosuit, version 32. That thing is the reason why commander ExoSkull is alive today! I'm not going to explain it right now, but maybe later! For now, we have to get going!"

Again, I tried standing up, but walking on two legs was way harder than it seemed! _„Could I get some help?"_ \- „Just activated auto stabilization, but come already!" - _„How do I do that?"_ \- „IMAGINE IT! And imagine shooting aswell once you're in the position to do it!"

How exactly do you imagine auto stabilization? The only thing that I could think of was: _„Suit! Activate auto stabilization!"_ I was surprised when it worked. My body stood up from the ground. I could now move freely around.

„Now get going!" We ran back down the corridor, inside the chemical area, skipped desinfection, took the elevator to the level that the facility was on and kicked in the door.

Now that we were inside, I was relieved to see that everyone was still alive. _„Ah, Bolt! You came just right to see me vaporize your new friends!"_ \- _„Allan, stop! If you turn on the laser, I will destroy it!"_

In that moment, smoke started rising from the gun, and Allan looked down at the panel. _„Seems like you don't have to do that anymore."_ \- _„What?"_ \- _„Energy overload. Apperantly my masterpiece only stood one shot!"_

But he wasn't angry... _„Meh, who cares? I still have a plan B!"_ The gun got lifted into the ceiling again, but two other, smaller guns came out, aiming right at the two beds.

„ _Hey shepherd! You remember how I spoke about dilemmas last night? I have one for you! Here's the situation: There are two automatic rifles pointing at my life samples! If you shoot out a gun, the other one will fire!_

 _You can also shoot me! But I've got a chip inplanted that reads my pulse! If I died, that would result in both rifles shooting! You now have the choice: Do you want to save one of your new friends but still have me causing havoc, or neutralize me at the cost of both of them?"_

From the back of the room a single bot walked out, aiming at me. That was a situation I didn't want to be in. No matter what I did, at least one innocent would die. _„What if I didn't shoot at all?"_ \- _„Then I'd kill them for you! Your time's ticking... NOW!"_

All the glas panels moved up, including the dome over Allan. His voice wasn't coming from the speakers anymore as he reminded me: „Make your decition, but don't take too long!"

Now I was stuck. Who or what should I kill? Everything was now relying on me. „Make your choice already, I'm getting tired over here!" Now the two victims started talking to me too.

„Save Lucy, I'm not worth it." - „What? No! Save Zeta! I should have helped Allan in his dark times, I'm responsible for our situation!" I had no idea what dark times she was talking about. „You know what? It doesn't matter if we die, Allan would still be mad! As much as I'm sorry for saying this: Take him out!"

Silence. I had made my choice. _„I'm not doing anything. Press your button Allan."_ Everyone was visibly shocked. „If that's what you think is the right thing to do, here you go!" I remembered what Mauser told me about imagining to shoot.

Now was the time. I jolted my arm up, aimed at Allan's paw and pulled the non existant trigger. In a loud scream of pain, the border collie was ripped from his platform. _„HELP THEM OUT!"_ Mauser instandly ran over to them and started laserbeaming the metal straps open that now replaced the electric field.

„GUARDIAN! KILL THEM ALL!" But the robot he was yelling at was now laying on the floor. I accidently shot him together with Allan's paw. „I'LL SHOW YOU!" He tried making his way to the panel, in a last attempt of killing Lucy and Zeta.

But I was there. Allan jumped up to me, almost throwing me over. With auto stabilization on, I couldn't move as freely as I wanted to, but it worked out. I punched back and hit him on the head. He tried getting around me, but I could always prevent that.

„BOLT! ONE'S OUT! KEEP HIM BUSY!" - _„TRYING!"_ Attempt after attempt I managed to pull him away from the panel, keeping him from pressing the button that would kill his victims. I had no idea where his agression came from, no idea what lead him to do that. All I knew was that I wasn't letting anyone die.

Finally I heared Mauser's voice. „THEY'RE FREE!" Allan jumped and threw me over. He wasn't going after me anymore, he was heading straight to the Mittens. _„WATCH OUT!"_ But it was too late. He was already on top of her, ready to kill.

He lowered his head, and opened his mouth for the fatal bite. Just a second before he could do that, a shot made us flinch. Allan ripped his eyes wide open and fell over. His chest was bleeding. On the other side of the room was a scout rifle on the floor, pointed towards him.

On top: A little brown hamster. He stormed towards us and stopped in front of Allan's face. „Al, I'm sorry. But this was necessary." The border collie looked at him with a tear in his eye and mumbled: „No... I'm sorry. This got out... of hand so quickly... I let you down... You did the right thing... Don't … be sad … over … me."

„Out of the way! I'll fix him up!" Mauser stood over his old friend and extended the medical equipment from his backpack. The second he tried to start, we were ripped out of the moment by the two rifles on the roof firing at the now empty beds.

 **Chapter 8, bold after story text. Nothing else to say.**


	18. Headquarters

Bolt's P.O.V.

We were all standing next to the border collie's dead body. Speechless. Nobody even dared to make a sound. A red puddle grew bigger and wider under Allan. A good while passed, until Lucy finally broke the silence.

„He... he's dead... My brother... is dead!" She started sobbing and sacked down in a corner. „There's gotta be a way to bring him back! We all learnt our lessons!" Mauser went into panic mode. „Y- you're right! It's Allan we're talking about! He must have some sort of revival mashine lying around here somewhere!"

„Or a serum that can heal wounds!", Zeta suggested. „Or a time mashine!" Suddenly they all looked at each other and screamed: „DOC!" It's as if everyone knew what was meant by that. And they did. Lucy lifted her brother on her back and ran outside.

Rhino was surprisingly calm. Maybe he was still shocked. Mauser ran towards the door and yelled: „Bolt! You come with me! We'll get you out of this suit! Everyone else: To the private docking bay! We'll get him up and running again! QUICK!"

I just hurried behind the boxer. We got through the desinfection area without desinfecting again, and the security bot just gave up being mad at us for not doing it properly. The corridor was suddenly occupied by a lot of bots.

We pushed them away as we ran, not even apologizing to them as we ruined a few chemical samples. I walked backwards into the wires and cables that connected to the suit and pulled it back. _„Starting desynch process"_

A mechanical rod injected into the suit's back and started spinning. That's where I lost consciousness again. A few seconds later I regained it, back in my own body. _„Desynch complete"_

„RUN!", the boxer screamed, pulling me off the platform. I started sprinting down the corridor, janitor bots all around a small blue puddle were trying to hold us away from the chemical, but we were just too fast for them.

As we got down the hallways to the docking bay it became clear that the doors and gates were only secured from one side, the other one was fully accessable by anyone. „THIS WAY!" As we got through the door with the title 'VIP Docking Port' on it, the others were already waiting at the ship.

Mauser unlocked his cruiser and the visor folded to the side. After all that trouble, sitting was a relief for me. Allan's body was lying next to us on the rear bench, with his sister holding his dead paw. Zeta was in the front, ready to assist Mauser in case something happened. After all, Mauser told me he knew the border collie twins longer than Zeta did, so it must have hit him harder than the white golden retriever.

The engine started up and we got catapulted forward down the tracks, all while Mauser was losing his sanity in yelling out: „FIRE UP, FIRE UP YOUR ROCKET!", to a melody that he hummed afterwards. Yep. He got hit.

„ _Hyperjump coordinates set. Targeting: Terra 0!"_ Mechanical surring and clanking before the ship said: _„Initiating hyperjump!"_ Which, a few seconds later, changed to: _„Executing hyperjump!"_ Light surrounded us, sucking everyone in and shooting it down the dark void.

Once we popped up as physical beings again, Mauser steered his ship right towards a planet that looked really similar to earth. Maybe a bit too similar. We landed right next to a few trees on a grass patch in the middle of nowhere.

„We're about to enter the headquarters. What happens inside the HQ stays inside, do you understand?" - „Of course! We won't tell anyone!" We suddenly started moving down into the ground.

The ground closed after us, and we were on tracks again just to be shot down the rails. „We have to go down so far away from the HQ that nobody knows where it is. What you're about to see is under the former house of commander ExoSkull. I haven't been up there in a while, but I know his place very well!"

We came to a stop, and the cruiser got sorted in along with other spaceships in a main port. As soon as nothing was moving anymore we jumped out and headed towards a door. As we passed it with a lot of security, the boxer yelled down the corridor: „TIFFANY! COME HERE!"

A silent humming came closer until we saw a robot driving on the ceiling to us. It looked like a ball with cameras strapped to cubes and cylinders with cables attached. _„_ _Yes Sir?",_ The robot asked in a female voice. „Tell the doc we need him right now!" - _„_ _Yes Sir!"_ And off it went.

„Who is that?" - „Her name is Tiffany and she is the HQ's secretary and assistant. She's the second robot that ExoSkull built with the only purpose of looking after everything here." Right then she came back.

„ _Sir, the doc is unoccupied. He's awaiting your arrival!"_ \- „Thank's Tiffany!" - _„_ _You're welcome Sir."_ We carried Allan's body inside a big room. A small spider bot came inside. A medic. „Are you the doc?", I asked in confusion. I thought of him as something bigger.

„ _No sir, I am his assistant. You can call me Penny!"_ She had my full attention. „Are... are you kidding me?" - _„_ _No sir. I don't have permission to do that."_ A loud mechanical noise ripped me out of my upcoming urge to be with my person.

Out of the ceiling, a bigger, WAY bigger version of Tiffany lowered down. With a very friendly, yet robotic voice it said: _„_ _Good morning, Mauser! What's the prob... Oh, I see. I'm very sorry for your loss."_

„Doc, we didn't come here for you to mourn him! Can you revive him?" - _„_ _I'll be honest, I'm not sure. How long has he been dead for?"_ \- „I DON'T KNOW, I DIDN'T LOOK AT THE TIME!" - _„_ _Alright... can you estimate it?"_

„Must have been half an hour ago..." - _„_ _Alright. Give me a few hours. For now, leave the room. Penny, would you take them to the waiting area?"_ \- _„_ _Yes Doc!"_ The spiderbot opened the door for us and led us to a room with a bench and a few chairs.

„ _Please wait until the Doc is ready. I will give you an update as soon as something critical happens!"_ \- „Thank's..."

That gave us a bit of time to think. I couldn't believe what was happening right now. Allan changed so often in my view... First he was the shy introverted dog who didn't talk at all, then suddenly the biggest geek of all, before going back into shy mode.

He was humble, even when the others said all the good things about him he played it off! The next second he was our tour instructor, supplying us with every possible detail ever! He even saved Mittens in a way!

Without his knowledge of computers and the way that the virtualization of our minds worked, we would propably still be looking for the code after my cat dropped it! And then, in his lab, Allan was so protective over his personal stuff!

In that night I woke up to him singing something, and I from the edge of my view I saw Rhino going into his lab! The longer I listened to him singing, the harder it was for me to stay awake to listen more!

Until of course he screamed in surprise, maybe because of Rhino or something. I heard them talking about a lot of science stuff too, and I found it very interesting, up to that point when I just couldn't keep my eyes open anymore.

And in a matter of seconds, he snapped from „Everything's cool" to „I hate this" to „I'm so sick of everything". Allan really scared me. And then, in his last moments, he was back to his shy, humble, insecure, „I want to make everyone feel ok" self.

I have no idea who is really behind his face. I have no idea what his intentions are. I have no idea if he's something special to the Skulls, if he really is one who changes stuff. Could he even do what he promised? I had so many questions, so few answers that it felt really frustrating after a while.

But I knew that he just had to let it all out once to be free from it forever. Something in me just knew it. I took a look at the others. Mauser was with Lucy, calming her down. Zeta and Rhino were reliving the scene, talking about the ways that could have been solved differently.

But.. I didn't see Mittens anywhere! I was suddenly really worried... until I felt something moving on my side. She's been hugging me the whole time and I didn't notice her! I layed my arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer. She snuggled further into my fur. That's when her warmth kicked in, solved all the knots in my brain and made me confident that everything would be ok. I just knew it.


	19. Acceptance

After what seemed to be an eternity, the little spiderbot came crawling into the waiting room. She was slow and careful, and her tone was lowered as the female robotic voice announced that everyone should slowly get in the medical bay.

The Doc was still doing his job, and he looked scary with all that medical equipment folded off of his body. Underneath him: The border collie. Plugged into millions of syringes, life support, heart- and pulse monitors.

A few knives and lasers and whatever were rotating, cutting and peeling on him. When the Doc noticed us, he made his last operations and moved up to the side, making Allan clearly visible now.

The bullet wound was shaved free of fur, revealing a stitch right in the center of a perfect hairless circle. It broke everyone's hearts seeing him there, helpless, not knowing if he was alive or not. But that question would soon be answered.

„ _You need to be very quiet now. I hooked him up to everything I can, and I can keep him alive for a few minutes. Sadly, his brain was without oxygen for too long. His basic reflexes like heartbeat and breathing are only done with mashines now._

 _As a doctor, my purpose is to do everything I can to make him stay, but as a class A+ artificial intelligence my intuition tells me that this is wrong. I will give you five minutes before giving him his eternal rest. Talk to him. But be careful."_

They all agreed that Lucy should be the first to talk to her brother. As she stepped towards the bed, she was surprisingly calm. „Allan? Can... can you hear me?" - „L- lucy... Hey sis..." His voice. He was broken.

„I'm sorry that I never let you talk, that I didn't fight for you and you felt so down all the time..." - „Lucy it's... it's ok." He just sounded like a zombie. And he technically was one. „No it isn't! I hurt you by not doing anything to help you! I'm a horrible sister!"

„ _Shhhh. Lower your voice a bit, his heart is acting up."_ \- „Lucy... Remember that whatever I said about you, I didn't mean it. You're a good sister to me. And... Mauser. Zeta. I p- propably hurt you with my w- words too. I'm sorry."

The next two minutes were spent like this, various apologies and comforts. But at his last minute, Allan told us to step closer as he whispered with a broken voice: „When I died, I went to a void. The void started clearing out, and I suddenly saw clearly. I know things that you don't. I was asked not to tell you. It would destroy your universe.

Don't go back in my lab. Leave it. I was... so close... to destroying it... to breaking it..." - „What? What did you almost break?" - „T- the... the... wall... the most important wall of our universe... don't go in my lab. That's where the... the wall is."

And with that he faded. „What? Doc, are the five minutes over already?" - _„_ _No sir. You'd still have one more minute. He died with lifesupport."_ A moment of silence was held for the border collie that day.

A dog was lost in the battle for science and acceptance. But after their visit and last goodbye to him, it didn't feel as horrible as they thought it would. Because they knew, that would be the last chance for them to accept him and his actions. They accepted him as dead, as fallen, as a friend, brother lost, but they knew it was ok now.

As Bolt, Mittens and Rhino returned home, they fell into the arms of Penny and her mother, both have been worried for the last few days. They didn't tell her. Bolt still had his voice decoder, but they didn't tell her anything, at least about the last moments.

And there it was: The wrong feeling. So they informed Penny about this scene aswell. Now everyone accepted it. And that's what Allan always wanted. To matter. To matter to someone, somewhere hidden in the dark void that is space.

 **Epilogue:**

Mauser issued a lockdown of Allan's lab, so no bot or halfbot could go inside. Even the commanders, like ExoSkull or EchoSkull respected that. That alone was a miracle by itself, because it meant that they didn't have full access anywhere anymore, even if it was just this small lab that didn't mean anything to the greater good of the Skulls.

A few months later though, a janitor bot squad was sent to clean up the whole chemical section, after a security breach with the Gasopendric. The secondary testing facility also had to get cleaned up after it hadn't been used since the incident.

The jani-bots did their usual job, vacuum cleaning, undusting the shelves, mopping the floor and picking up a banana that was somehow in the middle of an ashpile.

 **The End**

 **I don't know why, but somehow in both BnaBs, I got followers right as the story ended. Sorry about that, but I had this ending already. Only a few things were scripted, like Mauser's arrival and Allan going crazy. That's basically almost everything I knew from the beginning, the rest added up.**

 **Special thanks to Advina for being here every single story that I uploaded, WoolingMations, for being here this entire story, and ShadowScare for joining in right at the end. (Sorry bout that) [Also Advina, you wanted to tell me something at my last chapter, well, here it is...]**

 **([And sorry for the short last chapter, but I couldn't cut the last part of the prelast chapter and stick it in here, for obvious reasons...] I'm honestly not quite sure if I'll write another story, but I guess this concludes the Skull guestpart.)**


End file.
